Blended Learning Academies Credit Recovery High School

The Blended Learning Academies Credit Recovery High School district in Michigan consists of two small, at-risk high schools serving grades 9-12: the main Blended Learning Academies Credit Recovery High School in Lansing (159 students) and the much smaller Blended Learning Academies Credit Recovery High School Liv in Livonia (28 students). These schools are designed to help students who have fallen behind earn credits toward graduation, and they face extraordinary challenges compared to typical Michigan high schools.

Both schools post staggeringly low graduation rates—33.3% in Lansing and 30.0% in Livonia, versus the 84.0% state average. Dropout rates are equally concerning: Livonia's 30.0% is nearly double Lansing's 16.0% and over four times the state's 7.1%. Chronic absenteeism is the defining issue, affecting 92.2% of Lansing students and 70.5% of Livonia students, compared to 27.9% statewide. Interestingly, Livonia actually spends more per student ($11,808 vs. $9,264) yet achieves worse outcomes, suggesting money alone cannot solve these deep-rooted attendance and engagement problems. Both schools also have very high student-teacher ratios (33.8:1 in Lansing, 28:1 in Livonia), which is counterintuitive for programs that typically require intensive individualized support.

Despite the grim overall picture, there are small signs of hope. Lansing's 10th-grade English Language Arts proficiency on the PSAT reached 52.4%, just 5.6 points below the state average and nearly 20 points higher than its own 9th-grade score (33.3%)—suggesting students who persist may find their footing. Lansing's state ranking has also crept upward from the 12th percentile (2022-2023) to the 28th percentile (2025-2026). However, with roughly half of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch and test data largely missing for Livonia, parents should understand these schools serve some of Michigan's most vulnerable students, where traditional success metrics may not fully capture the difficulty of the credit recovery mission.