Summary:
The Taylor School District in Michigan is served by two very different high schools: Taylor High School, a traditional comprehensive school for grades 9-12 with 1,371 students, and Taylor Virtual Learning Academy, an online school for grades 6-12 with just 325 students.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that Taylor High School is clearly the stronger and more stable option of the two. It outperforms the virtual academy on every academic metric: its graduation rate is 72.9% versus 62.5%, its dropout rate is lower (11.2% vs. 15.2%), and its test scores are significantly better. For example, 34.2% of Taylor High students are proficient in SAT reading and writing, compared to just 23.4% at the virtual academy. Taylor High also has a much more reasonable student-teacher ratio of 18.5:1, while the virtual academy has an extreme 64.2:1 ratio, meaning students there get very little individual attention. The virtual academy does spend less per student ($14,799 vs. $20,212), but that cost savings appears to come at the expense of student outcomes.
However, both schools face serious challenges. Chronic absenteeism is a district-wide crisis, affecting nearly half of all students at both schools—roughly double the state average of 27.9%. Proficiency rates in core subjects are far below state averages; for instance, only 6.5% of Taylor High 11th graders are proficient in SAT math, compared to 27.5% statewide. The virtual academy also serves a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students (71% vs. 65%). On a positive note, preliminary 2025-2026 data for Taylor High School shows improvement across all subjects, suggesting recent interventions may be starting to help. Still, parents should be aware that neither school currently ranks above the bottom 25% of Michigan high schools, and the virtual academy in particular appears to be an under-resourced alternative that may not provide the support its at-risk students need.
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