from “le détroit” · the strait
On the 2026 M-STEP, 14.1% of Detroit third graders scored proficient in English Language Arts, the district's best mark in 12 years, even as statewide scores showed little improvement.
Detroit's third graders just turned in their strongest ELA result in more than a decade.
On the 2026 M-STEP, 14.1% of third graders in the Detroit Public Schools Community District scored proficient or above in English Language Arts, the district's highest mark in 12 years.
The gain runs against the grain statewide.
"While students across the state (and country) continue to regress academically, our students are improving," Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said.
The district laid out the full picture in an announcement posted to its newsroom on September 4. It reported record-high math proficiency in every grade from 3 through 8 and a fourth straight year of record ELA results.
Since 2017-18, the district says, its grades 3-8 ELA gap with the state has narrowed from 32 points to 25, and its math gap from 31 points to 21.
Compared with spring 2019, the last round of testing before the pandemic, the district posted a 7.6 percentage point increase in eighth graders scoring proficient or better in English and a 6.8 percentage point increase in seventh grade math.
The distance left to travel is still real. Detroit third graders trail the statewide average of 38.2% by about 24 percentage points in ELA.
Statewide, early literacy scores have shown little to no improvement in recent years, and Detroit bucked that trend this spring.
Anyone who wants the grade-by-grade detail can read the district's full announcement at detroitk12.org.
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