Detroit schools are making real gains in reading and math: 4 strategies that are working

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May 13, 2026 at 12:41am EDT

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With five Detroit first graders peering up at her, Aja Penick repeated one word: “Same.” The students guessed the word’s spelling on mini white boards. One guessed “saym.” Another, “sam.”

Penick focused on Marvin, 7, who had written “sae” on his board.

“You need something else,” she said. A few students tried to whisper their guesses, but Penick trained her attention on the boy dressed in a blue-collared shirt. Marvin added the letter M: “Saem.” That wasn’t it either, Penick said. But he was close. She asked him: What do you know about where ‘e’ should go in a word when ‘e’ is silent?

Marvin erased one more time and wrote the word correctly, victorious.

Students like Marvin can get this kind of attention from interventionists like Penick because of the Detroit students who struggled to read — and didn’t get the help — a decade ago.

Penick is one of 18 academic interventionists at Munger Elementary-Middle School in Detroit. The school district has for three years paid the salaries of reading interventionists like Penick from a $94.4 million legal settlement. Michigan awarded the money to Detroit Public Schools Community District after a group of students sued the state in 2016, claiming they’d been denied the opportunity of a quality education, and the “right to read,” in particular.

The headlines about that lawsuit exposed deplorable conditions in Detroit schools. There were rodents in classrooms, a shortage of textbooks, and unqualified teachers. And students were graduating without basic literacy skills. These conditions had persisted for decades, and were especially acute while the district was under state control for long periods.

Administrators say after years of struggle, the district is finally moving the needle, and the data bears that out. The Education Scorecard, a new analysis from researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth that draws on state and national test scores, shows Detroit students are making faster improvement in reading and math compared with similar districts. Amid what these researchers are calling a “reading recession,” Detroit represents a bright spot, even as the district still has a long way to go.

Proficiency rates in Detroit are still much lower than many urban districts across the country. In reading, 15.4% of students scored proficient or higher in 2025 state tests. In math, 12.3% scored proficient or higher. But district leaders are hopeful those numbers are growing, too. District leaders attribute the success they’ve made so far to a consistent strategy focused on reducing student absenteeism, a reading curriculum attuned to the science of reading, and tracking of academic data.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti believes the district’s improvement should be celebrated and earn commendation, even if it is “incremental.” But Vitti, who has run the district since 2017, said the trend “shouldn’t create complacency.”

And the literacy lawsuit money that has helped fund the district’s efforts to improve will soon dry up.

Below are four strategies Detroit educators say have moved the needle.

1. A focus on literacy — and aides to help

Detroit’s installed both multilingual interventionists and reading interventionists like Penick across its schools — including 267 to work with K-2 students specifically. Their work ramps up during 120-minute literacy blocks instituted in Detroit schools every day.

Greg Burris, a multilingual interventionist at Munger, grew up in southwest Detroit. He comes from a family of Spanish speakers, and speaks Spanish himself. At Munger, 73% of students are English learners, and the neighborhood is largely Latino.

Burris has been working as an interventionist with the district for more than a year, delivering reading and language help to its Spanish-speaking students like Marvin. Nearly 74% of Munger students showed average or above-average growth on the state’s assessment for English learners in 2025, up from 68% in 2023.

Some of his work involves helping students overcome the fear of messing up when they speak English.

“A lot of these kids, they kind of know the language, but I feel that they kind of had a fear of speaking,” he said.

2. Getting students to show up to school consistently

Chronic absenteeism — missing 10% or more of the school year — has been a persistent struggle for Detroit schools, although it is lower than a few years ago. Last school year, 61% of students were chronically absent, compared with 77% in the 2021-2022 school year.

Detroit’s chronic absenteeism rates are still much higher than statewide rates, but the district has put in a lot of work to change them. High school students can even earn up to $1,000 for perfect attendance in a controversial incentive program that officials say is working.

First grade teacher Samantha Ciaffone has been teaching in Detroit for seven years. A few years ago, right after the pandemic, about seven to eight kids wouldn’t show up every day. Now, Ciaffone usually sees about one to two kids absent every day. When students are in class most days, she can help them make steady progress, instead of splitting her attention, trying to catch kids up.

“It allows us to be better educators to see kids consistently in the seat instead of once or twice a week,” she said. “It makes such a difference.”

Munger, like many Detroit district schools, has an attendance agent who is diligent about making calls to the homes of absent students, even showing up at their door. A parent engagement coordinator also works at Munger to try to encourage parents to show up for after-school events.

3. Students take ownership of their academic performance

Detroit still has students who struggle in reading and math. But Lisa VanLandschoot, who teaches seventh grade English at Munger in Detroit, said she’s noticed a key change in students. They seem more confident, she’s noticed, and more eager to learn.

VanLandschoot thinks it’s because they have more ownership over their academic careers. That ownership is posted all over the classrooms in Munger. A first grade classroom’s bulletin board lists the names of students behind and ahead in certain reading skills. In kindergarten, assessment data is posted.

Hayley, 12, is one of the students who VanLandschoot said has made stunning progress this school year. She’s still learning English, after moving to the country from Mexico in 2024. Hayley likes that the teachers make it easy to ask questions when she’s unsure of something.

“We can ask, and Ms. V explains the best she can,” she said.

Educators and school leaders are also taking ownership of data, especially periodic school assessments and state testing results. School administrators set goals around key metrics every school year, and the district monitors for schools not seeing growth, to find out who may need more intervention.

4. Bringing students back to neighborhood schools

Detroit gives families a lot of choices: They can attend schools with more rigorous programs, language immersion schools, and African-centered education. Vitti wants to celebrate choice.

“But with choice comes responsibility,” he said.

And if families choose something other than their neighborhood school, that means they need to still get students to their desks on-time, every day. If not, Vitti said the district is starting to have conversations with parents about returning to neighborhood schools, particularly if a student has missed 45 or more days of school. That signals a student doesn’t have reliable transportation to get to school.

“The greatest improvement that we’ve had … is students going back to their neighborhood schools,” he said. At Munger, a neighborhood school, the slogan is: “We’re not a school house, we’re a school home,” according to Principal Donnell Burroughs.

Detroit school’s progress could be fragile

The end of the legal settlement money isn’t the only factor that could threaten the district’s work. The Munger school community is confronting increased immigration enforcement during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Burroughs said more students have been chronically absent this school year — out of fear, in some cases. Some Munger parents have been detained by immigration enforcement agents on their way to school, Burroughs said.

“I do find that a lot of my students don’t come to school just because their parents are scared about being picked up during the day,” he said.

But he thinks Munger’s staff is doing a good job sharing the message that students are safe.

Vitti knows Detroit has a long way to go to match or even exceed the achievement levels of other districts of its size across the country.

“That’s the next challenge … continuing to motivate, inspire, and change things, tweaking things,” he said. “Not wholesale changes — but to continue to expand proficiency and growth levels, and that’s what keeps me motivated every day.”

Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org.

This story was produced in collaboration with the Associated Press’ Education Reporting Network.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.