Summary:
Zip code 48340 in Pontiac, MI, is served by two high schools—Pontiac High School and Pontiac Academy for Student Success—both part of the Pontiac City School District, which ranks in the bottom 7% of Michigan districts.
Pontiac High School is the dominant traditional option, enrolling 992 students in grades 9-12, while Pontiac Academy for Student Success is a micro-alternative school with just 7 students. The two schools share a campus but differ dramatically in resources: the Academy spends $43,574 per student with a 7.7:1 student-teacher ratio, versus $29,768 and a 17.1:1 ratio at Pontiac High. Despite this intensive investment, the Academy posts only a 50% graduation rate and a 50% dropout rate, suggesting it serves students with profound challenges. Pontiac High performs better on outcomes but still struggles severely—its 66.3% graduation rate and 31.4% dropout rate are both far worse than state averages of 84% and 7.1%, respectively.
Academic proficiency at Pontiac High School is critically low across every subject. Only 2.3% of 10th graders are proficient in math (state: 31.5%), 5.9% in science (state: 35.2%), and 9.6% in SAT reading/writing (state: 52.1%). Scores also fell sharply year-over-year—science proficiency dropped from 13.5% to 5.9%, and social studies from 18.3% to 5.1%. Chronic absenteeism affects 72.2% of students, 2.6 times the state rate, which is likely a root cause of poor performance. The school’s state ranking has plummeted from the 10th percentile to the 2nd percentile in one year. With 67.3% of students eligible for free/reduced lunch, these schools face deep socioeconomic barriers that high per-student spending alone has not overcome.
Thank you for your feedback!