Best High Schools in Zip Code 48023

Zip code 48023 is home to two high schools—Anchor Bay High School and East China Virtual Academy—that serve very different student populations, with Anchor Bay offering a traditional grades 9-12 experience for roughly 1,740 students and East China Virtual Academy providing an online, grades 6-12 alternative for just 33 students.

For parents, the clearest standout is Anchor Bay High School, which posts a 94.8% graduation rate versus the state’s 84.0% and a dropout rate of just 3.5%—less than half the Michigan average. Academically, Anchor Bay outperforms state averages in both SAT English Language Arts (57.1% vs. 52.1%) and math (27.9% vs. 26.5%), and its PSAT scores are especially strong, with 9th-grade math proficiency 12 points above the state. However, the school falls below state averages in M-Step science (27.8% vs. 35.2%) and social studies (38.7% vs. 43.2%), and those scores dropped sharply from the prior year—by 10.1 and 14.2 points, respectively. Chronic absenteeism sits at 27.3%, near the state average, yet the high graduation rate suggests students still find a path to completion. Meanwhile, East China Virtual Academy reports a perfect 0.0% dropout rate, though its graduation rate (77.7%) trails its own district’s 93.4% average, and no test scores are available for comparison.

Financially and demographically, the two schools differ notably. East China Virtual Academy serves a higher share of economically disadvantaged students (33.3% free/reduced lunch vs. 20.3% at Anchor Bay) yet spends $2,002 less per student ($11,501 vs. $13,503) while maintaining a smaller student-teacher ratio (16:1 vs. 21.6:1). Its district, East China School District, ranks slightly higher than Anchor Bay School District (74th vs. 69th percentile). For families weighing options, Anchor Bay offers proven academic and graduation outcomes in a traditional setting, while the virtual academy provides flexibility and dropout prevention—though its lack of reported test data makes direct academic comparisons impossible.