Original Research by School Decision on Tri County Educational Center
Tri County Educational Center is an alternative high school in Ferndale, Michigan, operated by Ferndale Public Schools and located on Garden Lane in the 48220 zip code. It serves grades 9 through 12 but is not a traditional comprehensive high school. The structure of its enrollment tells you a great deal about what this place is: the overwhelming majority of students are in 12th grade, with far smaller numbers in grades 9, 10, and 11. That pattern is typical of alternative programs focused on credit recovery and re-engagement, where students arrive behind on credits and work toward completing diploma requirements. A parent considering this school should understand it as a targeted pathway for students who need a nontraditional route to graduation, not as a standard four-year high school experience.
The student body is predominantly Black, with a small number of white students and students identifying as two or more races, and a handful of Hispanic students. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which situates the school among those serving economically vulnerable families. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not reported, so we cannot characterize those populations here.
Academic performance data is limited. No state assessment results were available, and no multi-year academic trends were reported. A four-year graduation rate was not provided, nor was a chronic absenteeism rate. When we placed the school against districts in Oakland County for comparison, all three metrics we checked, proficiency, graduation, and absenteeism, came back inapplicable because the entity values were missing. This is a school where the standard testing and accountability framework does not capture what the program does. Alternative schools often sit partially or fully outside the usual proficiency and graduation reporting because their students arrive mid-pathway or follow individualized completion plans. A parent should not read the absence of those numbers as evidence of weakness. It does mean, though, that you would need to ask the school directly about completion rates, post-graduation outcomes, and how it tracks student progress internally, since the publicly reported data does not answer those questions.
We looked for information on program offerings, course access, staffing, discipline, and attendance and found none reported. The same goes for Title I status. These gaps leave a real hole in the picture. A parent exploring this option would want to ask whether the school offers career or technical pathways, dual enrollment, or support services such as counseling and social work, since none of that appears in the available data.
Ferndale itself is an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, sitting roughly ten miles northwest of downtown along the Woodward Avenue corridor. The city borders Detroit to the south at Eight Mile Road. Publicly reported descriptions characterize Ferndale as a revitalized residential and commercial community with a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. The city narrowed West Nine Mile Road to one lane in each direction and added on-street parking, which brought back foot traffic and drew in new stores and restaurants. Ferndale is also publicly described as the hub of the LGBTQ+ community in Metro Detroit and a center of progressive politics. Affirmations, an LGBT community center, anchors the downtown. The broader area has city parks, active churches, and civic organizations.
The housing market in the school's zip code is more affordable than the Oakland County median. Typical home values in this zip code sit below the state benchmark and well below the national benchmark, while rents run modest. Oakland County's housing market as a whole has seen a recent increase in active and new listings, with median listing prices easing somewhat and homes spending a little longer on the market than a year earlier. Ferndale's own housing stock is a mix of owner-occupied homes and rentals, with the publicly reported city population showing a slight decline in recent estimates.
Within the district, Ferndale Public Schools recently restructured its elementary grades, opening Ferndale Lower Elementary School in fall 2024 on the site of the former Jackson Elementary and Center for Advanced Studies and the Arts in Oak Park, serving kindergarten through second grade. No other recent district-level changes surfaced in our search.
For a family weighing Tri County Educational Center, the central question is whether an alternative, re-engagement model fits the student. The school appears designed for students who need to recover credits and reach graduation through a nontraditional structure, concentrated heavily in the senior year. The available data does not let you judge academic outcomes the way you could for a conventional high school. A parent or guardian would get the clearest picture by visiting the school, asking about completion and post-graduation outcomes, and confirming what support services and course pathways are available. The setting in Ferndale offers an affordable housing market within a walkable, civically active community a short distance from Detroit.
See more original research from School Decision →