Highland Park Public School Academy System

The Highland Park Public School Academy System contains just one school, Barber Elementary School, which serves grades PK through 8 in Highland Park, MI, with 362 students and a district ranking in the bottom 1% of Michigan schools.

For parents considering this area, Barber Elementary School faces extraordinary challenges that are important to understand. The school serves an almost exclusively low-income population, with 94.75% of students eligible for free or reduced lunch. Academic performance is critically low, with proficiency rates in English Language Arts and math running 25 to 50 percentage points below state averages across all tested grades. For example, only about 7% of 3rd graders are proficient in ELA compared to 38% statewide, and 4th grade math proficiency sits at just 7% versus 39% statewide. The school consistently ranks in the bottom 1-4% of Michigan elementary schools, and its percentile ranking has actually declined from the 4th percentile in 2017-2018 to the 1st percentile in 2025-2026, meaning it is falling further behind relative to other schools even as the total number of ranked schools grows.

Perhaps the most alarming statistic is the student-teacher ratio of 120.6:1 for the 2024-2025 school year—more than ten times the national average—which, if accurate, would make meaningful instruction nearly impossible. Chronic absenteeism affects 75.4% of students, nearly three times the state average of 27.9%, creating a cycle where students fall behind, disengage, and miss more school. Interestingly, the school spends $17,202 per student, well above the state average, yet this funding is not translating into academic results. There is a slight silver lining: proficiency rates improve somewhat in later grades (7th grade ELA at 17.86% and 8th grade PSAT at 13.64-19.23% versus 3rd grade at 6.98%), suggesting students who persist may gain skills, though this could also reflect attrition of struggling students. Overall, this school appears to be functioning more as a social safety net than an academic institution, requiring comprehensive community-wide interventions beyond just additional funding.