Summary:
Van Dyke Public Schools serves the Warren, Michigan area with two high schools—Lincoln High School, a traditional 9-12 comprehensive school with 489 students, and Success Academy, a smaller alternative 6-12 school with just 64 students—both facing significant economic challenges with roughly 85% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
The most striking finding is the contrast in student engagement and outcomes between the two schools. Success Academy quietly outperforms its larger counterpart on nearly every key metric: its graduation rate of 87.5% exceeds both the district (82.4%) and state (84.0%) averages, while its chronic absenteeism rate of 23.6% is dramatically better than the district's 51.5% and even beats the state average of 27.9%. Meanwhile, Lincoln High School struggles with engagement—58.7% of its students are chronically absent, its graduation rate falls to 80.6%, and its dropout rate of 8.4% exceeds state averages. Academic proficiency at Lincoln is consistently 25-40 points below state averages, with only 6.9% of 9th graders proficient in math compared to 33.5% statewide.
Perhaps most puzzling is the spending paradox: Lincoln High School spends $22,475 per student—more than double Success Academy's $10,430—yet produces worse outcomes. This suggests that the smaller, more flexible environment at Success Academy, with its ability to build personal relationships, may be more effective for at-risk students than simply pouring more money into a traditional model. While Lincoln has shown slight improvement (moving from the 2nd to 7th percentile statewide), both schools remain in the bottom 10% of Michigan high schools, highlighting systemic challenges that the district as a whole continues to face.
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