High Schools in Ypsilanti Community Schools

The Ypsilanti Community Schools district in Michigan contains three high schools serving grades 6 through 12 with a combined enrollment of roughly 742 students, and the district itself ranks in the bottom 17% of Michigan districts with a 1-star rating.

For parents, the standout choice is Ypsilanti STEMM Middle College, which dramatically outperforms its district peers despite serving a similar demographic profile. This school achieves an 84.3% graduation rate, a mere 3.1% dropout rate, and a 2-star rating—a significant improvement from its previous 1-star status. In contrast, ACTech High School is in crisis, holding a 0-star rating with a 14.5% dropout rate and 47.6% chronic absenteeism, even though it shares the same physical address as STEMM. Acce serves the highest-need population (79.4% free/reduced lunch) and posts the lowest graduation rate at 72.1%, though its chronic absenteeism is better than the district average.

Academically, the gap is stark: STEMM posts 54.5% proficiency on SAT reading/writing versus just 7.7% at ACTech, and 27.3% science proficiency versus 5.7%. However, even STEMM struggles with math, showing only 15.2% SAT math proficiency. Resource allocation tells a compelling story—STEMM spends $58,857 per student compared to roughly $21,000 at the other two schools, suggesting that higher investment yields results. Yet ACTech's $21,124 per-student spending with a favorable 11.8:1 ratio produces the weakest outcomes, indicating funding alone cannot fix deeper programmatic issues. All three schools exceed the state's chronic absenteeism rate of 27.9%, making engagement a district-wide crisis that likely drives the academic challenges seen across Ypsilanti Community Schools.