Reading growth for kindergarten through second-grade students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) slowed during the most recent school year (2025-26), according to district data presented last week. This follows a period of notable improvement in the preceding year, which marked the first phase of the district's $94.4 million literacy lawsuit settlement.
Only 27.3% of K-2 students were proficient in reading last school year, an increase of less than one percentage point from the 2024-25 school year. In contrast, proficiency in 2024-25 had grown by 4.5 percentage points compared to 2023-24. Additionally, there was a six percentage point drop in students demonstrating typical annual growth, with approximately 50.5% meeting this goal in 2025-26.
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti stated at a board committee meeting that, in hindsight, the district should have provided more tailored interventions for students who were close to reaching grade-level reading. Vitti noted that many students are "just below being at grade level" and require different support than those who are two or more grade levels behind.
This year marks the final period for the district to utilize funds from the 2016 federal "right to read" civil rights lawsuit. The settlement aimed to address years of state funding inequities and deplorable school conditions. While the interventionists, tutoring, and other resources supported by the settlement are available to students across all grades, much of the initial focus has been on early learners.
Board members expressed urgency regarding the stalled progress. Board chair LaTrice McClendon stated during the meeting, "Our kids cannot afford to continue to go backwards: 80% of our kids are not proficient." Board member Monique Bryant questioned why students significantly behind grade level are not retained. Vitti responded that he is "not quite ready to say universal retention," suggesting potential decisions on mandatory summer school should be made on a case-by-case basis.
District administrators identified several obstacles to faster progress. Vitti pointed to a significant number of new K-2 students last year with undiagnosed disabilities and "extreme behaviors" who, while awaiting special education evaluations, remained in general education classrooms and disrupted instruction. Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 18 or more days in a typical school year, also remains a challenge in early grades. The district has worked to reduce evaluation wait times by increasing staff, though some delays persist due to external factors like family schedules.
Summer learning loss is another key concern. An analysis by MarGrady Research, a third-party firm comparing DPSCD's results with 12 similar school systems, indicated that DPSCD students experienced more summer learning loss than their peers in other districts. Specifically, Detroit students showed a 10 percentage point decline between kindergarten and first grade summers, while students in some comparison districts showed growth. Vitti noted that this suggests Detroit students are not engaged at the same level during the summer, leading to regression in learning. Principals have increasingly raised the idea of mandatory summer school for students significantly behind.
The settlement funds have supported various initiatives, including hiring 267 additional literacy academic interventionists to work with K-2 students in small groups, reducing K-3 class sizes, hiring more teachers, and offering educator merit pay for meeting literacy goals. The funding also established newcomer centers for English language learners, created Parent Academy sessions, and expanded after-school tutoring. Vitti noted that the focus on K-2 literacy has helped create a "culture of literacy," with principals now more frequently observing and providing feedback to teachers.
While DPSCD's K-2 students showed more growth than those in comparison districts between 2022-23 and 2025-26, with an increase of 7.7 percentage points in grade-level reading compared to 2.6 percentage points in other districts, the overall proficiency rate still lags. The district's analysis showed the share of K-2 students reading at grade level increased by eight percentage points over the last three school years, equivalent to 35 extra days of learning. However, state standardized test scores for older students show DPSCD students remain significantly behind statewide averages, with only 14.1% of third graders proficient last spring. Previous efforts by the board to implement targeted academic summer programs faced funding constraints, but board members are now pushing to find the money, emphasizing the current crisis.
Note: State standardized tests are not administered to K-2 students; the results presented were from assessments used by DPSCD.
