Summary:
The Flushing Community Schools district in Michigan serves two high schools—Flushing High School, a traditional school with 1,229 students, and Raider Virtual Academy, an online program with just 98 students—covering grades 9-12 in a suburban area where the district overall ranks in the 58th percentile statewide.
These two schools could hardly be more different. Flushing High School is the clear standout, improving its state ranking from the 47th to the 61st percentile over two years and posting a strong 92.7% graduation rate—well above the state average of 84%. Its students meet or beat state proficiency in Social Studies (44.4%), SAT Reading/Writing (52.3%), and PSAT ELA (62.7%), though Science proficiency (23.2%) trails the state by 12 points. In contrast, Raider Virtual Academy is struggling severely: its graduation rate is just 45.6%, its dropout rate is 19.5%, and its chronic absenteeism rate is an astonishing 90%—more than three times the state average. Test scores at the virtual school lag 20-30 points behind Flushing High in every comparable subject, and its SAT Reading/Writing proficiency dropped from 35.3% to 23.5% in just one year.
The most striking finding is the funding gap: Flushing High School spends $13,799 per student, while Raider Virtual Academy spends only $4,917—just 36% of the traditional school's budget. Both schools serve economically diverse populations (38-45% free/reduced lunch), but the virtual academy's combination of high poverty, minimal funding, and a format requiring self-motivation appears to be a recipe for failure. For parents, Flushing High School offers a solid, improving education with strong graduation outcomes, while Raider Virtual Academy currently shows crisis-level absenteeism and academic decline that raise serious questions about whether the program can effectively serve its students.
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