Lee M Thurston High School

Lee M Thurston High School in Redford, MI, is a public high school serving 806 students in grades 9-12 within the South Redford School District, where 56% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

The most striking thing about Thurston is its "graduation paradox." The school posts an exceptional 98.4% graduation rate and a 0.0% dropout rate—far better than the state averages of 84% and 7.1%, respectively. In fact, Thurston's graduation rate even beats nearby Franklin High School in Livonia (95.3%), a school with much higher test scores. However, this success in keeping students on track to graduate contrasts sharply with academic performance. Only 13.1% of 11th graders are proficient in science and just 8% of 10th graders are proficient in math, compared to state averages of 35.2% and 31.5%. This suggests the school excels at supporting students toward completion, but struggles to translate that into state-defined academic proficiency. A related concern is chronic absenteeism, which affects 46.9% of students—nearly double the state rate of 27.9%.

There are some bright spots. Thurston shows relative strength in social studies, with 27.2% of 11th graders proficient—higher than the district average and better than nearby Garden City High School. It also significantly outperforms its district's alternative school, SOAR Academic Institute, in both graduation rate (98.4% vs. 85.8%) and test scores. However, the school saw a sharp decline in subgroup performance rankings between 2024-25 and 2025-26, dropping from the 92nd to 44th percentile for White students and from the 73rd to 40th percentile for African American students—a sudden shift that suggests systemic challenges rather than a gradual trend. For parents, Thurston offers a caring environment that gets students to graduation, but the academic gaps and attendance issues are important factors to weigh.