Priest ElementaryMiddle School

Priest Elementary-Middle School is a public school in Detroit, MI, serving 673 students in grades PK through 8 within the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Priest is currently ranked in the 2nd percentile statewide, placing it among the lowest-performing schools in Michigan, and this has been a consistent trend for several years. Academic proficiency rates in core subjects like English Language Arts and math are drastically below both district and state averages. For example, only about 5% of 3rd graders are proficient in ELA, compared to roughly 38% statewide. The challenges are even more pronounced in math, where 6th-grade proficiency sits near 5%, versus a 32% state average. These struggles are more severe than at nearby schools facing similar demographics. For instance, Munger Elementary-Middle School, just over half a mile away, ranks in the 17th percentile and achieves notably higher proficiency in the same grades and subjects. Chronic absenteeism is also a major concern, affecting over half of Priest’s students—nearly double the state average—though the rate has shown a slow, steady decline from a peak of nearly 60% a few years ago.

Despite these overall struggles, there are some bright spots worth noting. In 8th grade, Priest students actually outperform the district average in Science (20% vs. 12.5%), Social Studies (29.2% vs. 25.2%), and PSAT Math (22.7% vs. 12.4%). This suggests that something effective may be happening in the upper grades that could be studied and replicated in earlier grades. Additionally, while the school spends over $22,000 per pupil—comparable to higher-performing schools like Lowrey Elementary School in the Dearborn City School District—the investment has not yet translated into better outcomes. The most urgent takeaway for parents is that Priest faces profound instructional and support gaps, but the pockets of success in 8th grade and improving attendance trends offer glimmers of hope for the future.