Fordson Tower

The Tower was constructed in 1926 and has been used for innumerable things. During World War II, the Tower was used to spot enemy aircraft that could have been headed for the River Rouge Plant, where tanks were in production. The media center used the Tower for archival storage, classes, and media center office space. Students of Fordson hung signs over the Tower including a "for sale" sign in the 1950s and the most recent in 1993 exclaiming Fordson's State Championship in football.

Renovations and additions

In 2005, an addition was adjoined to the northwestern body of the school. A cafeteria, ten classrooms including science and computer labs, and the replacement of the greenhouse comprised the new wing. The addition preserved the structure and appearance of the school by using the alternating dark and light limestone scheme and proceeding with the same architectural model developed from the school's inception. Consequently, Fordson received the Governor's Award for Historic Preservation and has been featured in many publications including the Masonry Institute of Michigan and the architects of the addition, TMP architecture.

In 2007, the athletic facilities underwent an extensive renovation. The natural turf varsity football field and the practice field on the eastern side of the athletic campus were replaced by AstroTurf surfaces. The track and tennis courts were also renovated. Beyond the tennis courts on the northern side of the campus, trees were planted when a seldom used sidewalk was demolished. Sarkozy field, the prior soccer field for the school was sold to the city of Dearborn for $800,000. The total cost before the sale was $1.6 million.

Present day

In 2009 the Wayne County Regional Education Service Agency issued a report strongly asking Fordson High's administration to only use Arabic when absolutely necessary to communicate to students and parents.^[6] The school district administration stated they disagreed with the decision and would not enact it.^[7]

As of 2013, the principal of Fordson is Youssef Mosallam, who was a graduate of the Fordson Class of 1994 and senior on the 1993 Class AA State Football Championship team. Fordson is located in Dearborn, the largest Arab community outside the Middle East, where more than 40% of the residents are of Arab ancestry. This is reflected at Fordson, where approximately, as of 2006, 95%^[8] of the 2,700 student body is of Arab ancestry. According to SchoolMatters, in 2006, 91.6% of students passed the Michigan reading test while 80.4% passed the math portion. Of the students taking the ACT, the average score was 19.7 out of a possible 36.^[9] According to the 2015 Mackinac Center Report, Fordson High School was ranked the 13th Best Non-Charter Public High School in the State of Michigan due to gains over the last five years of all subgroups.

In 2011 North Shore Films produced Fordson- Faith, Fasting, Football and the American Dream, highlighting the Fordson football tradition and its deep roots within the Dearborn community.

Academic performance

Student assessments
2021–22 school year[11] Change vs. prior year[11]
M-STEP 11th grade proficiency rates (Science / Social Studies)
Advanced %	7.4 / 3.9
Proficient %	14.8 / 13.8
PR. Proficient %	14.3 / 56.9
Not Proficient %	63.5 / 25.4
Average test scores
SAT Total	922.0 ( −39.1)

In 1986, Tom Hundley of the Detroit Free Press wrote that the school "has a reputation for solid academics."^[5] In 1986, many students matriculated to Henry Ford Community College.^[5]

As of 2016, according to Brian Stone of the Huffington Post, Fordson was "consistently praised" because larger than average numbers of its students, many of whom were from low socioeconomic backgrounds, matriculated to elite universities.^[12]

Programs

By 1986, the school established an English as a second language program for newly arrived immigrants. In 1986, the program had 46 students.^[13]

By 1986, the school established a program to defuse tensions between Arab and non-Arab students through periodic meetings.^[14]

State Champions

• Fordson won the 1975 State Volleyball Championship albeit it was not an MHSAA-sanctioned tournament. The MHSAA started sponsoring volleyball in 1976.^[24]

Student body

When Fordson first opened, about all of the students were European American.^[4] For much of its history the students were immigrants of Greek, Italian, and Polish heritage,^[16] or other areas in Central and Southern areas of the continent.^[27] Many had parents working for the automobile industry.^[5] In 1986 the school had 1,755 students.^[21] The majority of non-Arab students, referred to as "Americans" or "Anglos" in the school parlance, were of Italian and Greek heritage, and were by then in their second and third generations.^[28]

Arab Americans had been in the student body since the establishment of the school, with the original generations prior to the late 1960s seeking to fully assimilate into the dominant culture of the area.^[27] By the 1970s numbers of Arab Americans increased.^[27] Numbers of Students of Arab ancestry increased after the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War and the 1978 South Lebanon conflict. By 1986 Arab Americans were almost 40% of the student body, with Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, and Yemeni-origin students represented, with the first group being the largest. Some of the students fled strife and were relatively uneducated before coming to Fordson.^[28] Unlike previous generations, some students chose to avoid assimilation.^[27] Some felt that they were not meant to stay in the United States permanently.^[28] By 1986 the school had established a prayer room for students and began accommodating requests from devout students, such as exempting them from some classes.^[21] In addition to Arab immigrants, there were students of recent non-Arab immigrant backgrounds, including Albanians, Ivorians, Pakistanis, and Romanians.^[28]

As of 2002 Arab Americans made up over 90% of the student body,^[29] and as of 2012 Muslims made up about 97% of the students.^[18] In the 2000s, those of Lebanese Shia ancestry made up the largest group of Arab students.^[30] Among the Arab students were longtime residents as well as recent immigrants; as of 2002 the latter often ate lunch inside the student cafeteria. Longtime residents, who often ate lunch in off-campus restaurants, thought the recent immigrants,^[29] known as "boaters" meaning "fresh off the boat" in area Arab-American slang,^[31] had a lack of sophistication. In the words of Gary David and Kenneth K. Ayouby, authors of "Being Arab and Becoming Americanized: Forms of Mediated Assimilation in Metropolitan Detroit," the longtimers perceived the recent immigrants as being "nerdy".^[29]

To accommodate religious Muslims, the cafeteria offers halal food.^[16] In 2003 52 of 53 members of the football team were Muslim while the coach was Catholic, and players used Arabic on the field to issue commands. Around that period some Muslim players active during the Islamic month of Ramadan chose to break their fasts, which they would normally observe, in order to play in the games.^[17] By 2010 coach Fouad Zaban began holding football practice at night in order to make it easier for devout Muslims to participate during Ramadan.^[32] Zaban had received approval to do so from Fordson and DPS administrators as well as the Dearborn police department and area residents.^[33] In a 30 year period prior to that time, Ramadan had not coincided with the beginning of football season.^[34]

The film Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football documented the Muslim football players at Dearborn High; a 2003 USA Today article inspired a British Indian Muslim, Rashid Ghazi to produce and direct the film.^[18]

Traditions

Fordson has many traditions within its history. Every class that graduates from Fordson provides the school with a gift. The class of 1956 presented seventy-six flags representing members of the United Nations of that year. The flags have been used at every graduation since then with many other flags being donated over the years. Football has a strong tradition within the school and the helmet is a basic element of this example. The helmet at Fordson comprises yellow with two blue stripes over the top for the varsity team, one for the junior varsity team and zero for the freshman team. Also tradition, the stripes are made with electrical tape.