Excellent Schools Detroit today released its list of the top-performing kindergarten through eighth-grade schools, recommending parents send their children to these schools this coming school year. Excellent Schools Detroit also released the eight schools at the bottom of the barrel that parents should avoid. These rankings are based only on this year’s and year- over-year performance on the Michigan standardized test, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP).
School leaders from 181 Detroit schools opted into Excellent Schools Detroit’s school quality review this year, including all of Detroit Public Schools, all Education Achievement Authority schools, 56 charters and 15 private and parochial schools. As that additional data is gathered from the school quality review, both the top and bottom lists will be updated.
To determine these rankings, Excellent Schools Detroit reviewed this year’s MEAP performance and year over year MEAP performance of 126 kindergarten through eighth-grade schools. The 31 new or turnaround kindergarten through eighth-grade schools in Detroit were not included in the analysis, as the study considered performance changes over time. Excellent Schools Detroit will release similar results for high school performance later this spring.
“In order for the education of our children to move forward in Detroit, we need to leave some schools behind. If your child is in one of these bottom eight schools, you should move them to one of the top 20,” said Dan Varner, CEO of Excellent Schools Detroit. “Excellent Schools Detroit is committed to keeping our community informed about the quality of Detroit’s schools so that more kids go to better schools.”
Detroiters should note that this year 88% of Detroit’s kindergarten through eighth-grade schools schools showed improvement from last year. Twelve of the top performers are operated by DPS, seven are charter schools and one private school are amongst the top performers. Thirkell Elementary School, a general admission DPS school, was the top performer, citywide. All of these schools also participated in Excellent Schools Detroit’s school quality review process.
"Our young people are the future and we want them to attend the highest quality schools," said Tonya Allen, COO of The Skillman Foundation. "Central to this is making sure that our neighborhoods are thriving and full of great educational opportunities like those found in the top 20 list for kindergarten-through-eighth-grades released by Excellent Schools Detroit." Allen will become CEO of The Skillman Foundation in July.
Sharlonda Buckman, CEO of Detroit Parent Network agrees, stating “parents deserve transparency in the great or poor performance of schools as they make one of the most important decisions they are faced with each year: "where do I send my kids to school"? The Excellent Schools Detroit scorecard provides a tool to help parents in the process; however, as we lift up the best performing schools, we recognize that for some parents, these high- performing schools are a distant dream because transportation and safety issues remain a barrier.”
Buckman also states “The scorecard is a great start and simultaneous to this, we must ask more of the collective community to continue the fight for more high quality schools and eliminate the barriers that cripple real choice.”
Go here: Top 20 best-performing K-8 schools in Detroit
Central Detroit
- Thirkell Elementary School
- Davison Elementary School
Downtown
- Detroit Edison Public School Academy
- University Prep Academy Middle School
- University Prep Academy Elementary Mark Murray
- University Prep Science and Math
- Burton International School
- Chrysler Elementary School
- Detroit Merit Charter Academy
East Detroit
- Garvey Academy
Northeast Detroit
- Oakland International Academy K-8
- Cornerstone Nevada Primary and Middle School
Northwest Detroit
- Pasteur Elementary School
- Vernor Elementary School
- Bates Academy
Southwest Detroit
- Clippert Academy
- Maybury Elementary School
West Detroit
- Detroit Premier Academy
- Charles Wright School
- Dixon Elementary School
“The Detroit community needs to know which schools are not delivering good results for our children,” said Varner. “Parents and guardians with children in any of the bottom schools should plan to send their kids somewhere else next school year.” Varner recommends those parents consider any of the schools on the top 20 list.
Don’t go here: Eight worst-performing K-8 schools in Detroit
Central Detroit
- Allen Academy
Downtown
- Voyageur Academy
East Detroit
- Detroit Enterprise Academy
- Commonwealth Community Development Authority
Southwest Detroit
- Universal Academy
- Pierre Toussaint Academy
West Detroit
- Center for Literacy and Creativity
- Michigan Technical Academy Elementary
In July, Excellent Schools Detroit will release its 2013 scorecard, ranking all schools attended by Detroit children, including early learning and development programs, kindergarten through eighth-grades and high schools. All schools graded as an “A” will meet the Excellent Schools Detroit standard of an excellent school: one that has 90% of its students on track to graduate on time, 90% of those students attending a quality post-secondary program and 90% of those entering that program without any need for remediation.
Excellent Schools Detroit cultivates the conditions to ensure that every Detroit child, cradle to career, is in an excellent school by 2020. Excellent Schools Detroit was formed in 2010 by partners from philanthropic, civic, business, nonprofit and education organizations. More information can be found at excellentschoolsdetroit.org. Last year’s scorecard is available at
scorecard.excellentschoolsdetroit.org.