Belleville High School

Belleville High School, part of the Van Buren Public Schools district, is a large public school in Belleville, MI, serving 1,669 students in grades 7 through 12. The school sits in a competitive landscape with several alternative, charter, and traditional public high schools nearby, and it has historically ranked in the lower-middle tier of Michigan high schools, currently holding a 2-star rating.

Academically, Belleville outperforms some of its closest traditional public school neighbors but trails high-performing charter and early college options. For example, its SAT reading proficiency (43.3%) is higher than Romulus Senior High School (27.4%) and Lincoln Senior High School (42.5%), but far below Canton Preparatory High School (70.9%) and Early College Alliance (73.3%). The math gap is even wider, with Belleville's 16.7% proficiency being less than half of Canton Prep's 31.1%. On a positive note, Belleville's graduation rate (82.6%) and dropout rate (5.6%) are both better than several nearby schools, including Arbor Preparatory High School and Lincoln Senior High, suggesting the school is effective at keeping students on track to graduate.

The most pressing concern is chronic absenteeism, which sits at a striking 41.9%—far above the state average of 27.9% and the highest among comparable traditional schools except Romulus Senior High (48.0%). This is especially notable given the school's relatively high per-pupil spending of $17,845, which exceeds the state average and what Canton Prep spends ($12,220). However, Belleville also has a high student-teacher ratio of 22.4:1, much higher than Lincoln Senior High (17.8:1) or Arbor Prep (14.7:1), suggesting funds may not be reducing class sizes. Performance has also been volatile year-to-year, though the school shows a strength in serving its African American students, whose ranking improved to the 50th percentile, while support for special education students has declined sharply—an area that clearly needs attention.