Macomb County high schools score poorly on state report card

A newly released report card for Michigan high schools reveals some disturbing news for Macomb County -- four schools with failing grades and none good enough to receive an A.
The Mackinac Center's Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card examines academic performance at every public high school in the state but it also takes into into account family income, producing what the center calls an “apples-to-apples” comparison for parents and policymakers.
Of the 31 public high school in Macomb County, a grade of F was given to Richmond, New Haven and Armada high schools, as well as a charter school, Merritt Academy in New Haven. 
The only Macomb school to receive a grade above a C was Sterling Heights High School, with a B.
Numerous high schools received D's:

• Chippewa Valley
• Dakota
• Anchor Bay
• Cousino
• East Detroit
• Lake Shore
• Lakeview 
• L'Anse Creuse
• L'Anse Creuse North
• Lincoln
• Connor Creek Academy-East

The Midland-based Mackinac Center starts its grading process by compiling four years’ worth of Michigan Merit Exam and ACT test scores and then adjusts those numbers based on the percentage of students in a high school who qualified for the free lunch lunch program. A high school’s “CAP score” indicates how far above or below projections a high school performed given its student population’s socioeconomic status, with 100 set as the standard.
“We were the first research group in the state to attempt this type of analysis on such a large scale,” said Audrey Spalding, education policy director and author of the study. “We now have two four-year periods of data, with two overlapping years, and it’s even more obvious that socioeconomic factors have a significant impact on standardized test results.”
As in 2012 when the first CAP report card was released, Star International Academy, a public charter school in Dearborn Heights, ranked as the top high school in the state.
The top 10 high schools in the study included five charter public schools:

• Star International Academy, Dearborn Heights 
• International Academy, Bloomfield Hills 
• City Middle/High School, Grand Rapids 
• Cesar Chavez High School, Detroit 
• Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy, Saginaw 
• Central Academy, Ann Arbor 
• Covert High School, Covert 
• Genesee Early College, Burton 
• Riverside Academy-West Campus, Dearborn 
• Universal Academy, Detroit