Complete Coverage

District Innovates to Address Dropout Problem

Cyber high school is having success re-engaging dropouts and at-risk students, earning state funds tied to enrollment.

By any measure, the Detroit area’s high-school-dropout problem is a crisis.

The Motor City area has one of the highest dropout rates in the country, which experts say contributes to the city’s economic stagnation and high crime rate, and strains state and local aid programs.

The dropout rate has a heavy financial impact on the more than 30 school districts in the Detroit metropolitan area, many of which have high percentages of low-income and minority students. As students drop out and others move to suburban districts, local education budgets are slashed even further because state funding is directly...