Where are the best schools in Michigan

Whether you are looking to buy a house in Plymouth or a looking for a luxury estate in Grosse Pointe, schools are an important factor when buying a home.  In many communities having a good school system helps hope prices and future home values.  It doesn't matter whether you are buying a lake house in West Bloomfield or a bungalow in Royal Oak schools sometimes make a big difference on where buyers with children make their final purchase. 

This Metro Detroit schoolarticle is going to concentrate on the top school districts in the suburbs around the Detroit area.  This area includes Wayne County, Oakland County, Livingston County, Macomb County, and Washtenaw County.  If you are moving to Michigan you may not know that these are the five major areas around metro Detroit.   Metro Detroit is a great place to live.  There are so many great things about the Detroit area that you may not know about.  So let’s begin by talking about the top schools and school districts in the suburbs of Detroit and in the South Eastern Michigan.   Each year in the spring students are tested by the state.  I believe it is called M STEP….it used to be called the MEAP.  It is standardized testing for all the students.  You can look up more information about it at https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709—,00.html

First I want to say that many of the rankings that you see on the internet are going to be different especially from year to year.    Some of the rankings are subjective and most of them have their own ranking systems.  So how do you figure out which schools will be the best for your children?  Which community and school district will be the best fit for your children may be some of the questions.  Below I have listed three different rankings by different websites from different years.  What you have to take out of this article is if the school system you are looking at is in one or more of these top of schools around metro Detroit.

When you are moving to the South East Michigan area and have school age children finding the best schools in Michigan is going to one of the top factors in choosing a community for you.  I am going to give you a list of some of the top schools systems in SE Michigan.  If you do not know this you will want to remember this as you look for homes in South eastern Michigan.  Many cities have multiple school systems that serve the city.  If you find a school system that you like it may encompass several cities.  You may love a particular city and a particular schools system, but the home you choose in the city may actually fall into a different schools system.  So do your research and double check with your Michigan relocation real estate agent to make sure the home you have chosen falls into the school system that you want.

One caveat that I have to say is that these are three different website’s rankings.  I myself would rank some other school districts in here. I would also rank some of them differently.  You should use these lists as just one of the ways to rank school districts in the suburbs of Detroit.  It is not an absolute list.  Here is the first list in order they ranked in the metro Detroit area.

1. Northville Schools
2. Dexter Schools
3. Bloomfield Hills Schools
4. Novi Schools
5. Grosse Isle Schools
6. Birmingham Schools
7. Rochester Schools
8. Lake Orions Schools
9. Troy Schools
10. Berkley Schools
11. Ann Arbor Schools
12. Grosse Pointe Schools
13. Brighton Schools 
14. Saline Schools
15. South Lyon Schools
16. Plymouth Schools
17. Walled Lake Schools
18. Trenton Schools

I have to tell you a story that impacted me.  I once dated a women that used to get mad at me when I would mention that my real estate clients thought Waterford Schools were a bad school district based on website rankings.  Her comment back to me has stuck with me and makes sense.  She said “It also boils down to parental involvement.  My son and many others from Waterford schools went on to college, graduated, and have good jobs.  In fact one kid down the street went to University of Michigan which is the top ranked University in Michigan.  You have to have a very high grade point and good ACT/SAT scores to get in.  Yet he went to Waterford schools.”  She was right in some aspects.  If you are involved and push your kids to do well in school then many times it’s not just about the school district.

Most of the schools systems in Metro Detroit are good.  Yes there are some bad schools systems or low ranked school systems that you want to avoid but we will get into that later.

I am only going to include the top school districts in South eastern Michigan on how they ranked.

1. Bloomfield Hills Schools              Oakland County
2. Troy Schools                                  Oakland County
3. Birmingham Schools                   Oakland County
4. Grosse Pointe Schools                 Wayne County
5. Novi Schools                                  Oakland County
6. Saline Schools                              Washtenaw County
7. Northville Schools                       Wayne Count
8. Rochester Schools                       Oakland County
9. Ann Arbor Schools                       Washtenaw County
10. Oakland Schools                          Oakland County
11. Berkley Schools                           Oakland County
12. Brighton Schools                          Livingston County
13. Grosse Ilse Schools                     Wayne County
14. Walled Lake Schools                   Oakland County
15. Plymouth – Canton Schools       Wayne County
16. Dexter Schools                             Washtenaw County
17. Lake Orion Schools                      Oakland County
18. West Bloomfield Schools            Oakland County
19. Hartland Schools                          Livingston County
20. Trenton Schools                           Wayne County
21. Fraser Schools                              Oakland County
22. Livonia Schools                            Wayne County
23. Utica Schools                                Macomb County
24. Farmington Schools                     Oakland County
25. Clarkston Schools                         Oakland County

Here is a third list from background checks

Top School Districts in Michigan, 2018