Bridge, 4/10

Detroit is ranked worst on the national exam. Again. Can schools improve?

By Erin Einhorn

It is difficult to find good news for Detroit schools in newly released national test score results. Not only did students in the city's main district rank last - for the fifth time - among major cities in every subject, but their scores dropped even lower than the rock-bottom numbers Detroit fourth-graders posted the last time they took the exam in 2015. The biggest drop came in fourth-grade math, where the city's average score fell 5 points between 2015 and 2017. The test, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP, was given to a representative sample of students in the first few months of 2017, shortly after a new school board took over the district, but before Superintendent Nikolai Vitti was hired. "There's just been so much instability in this district for so long," said Mike Addonizio, a professor of educational policy at Wayne State University. "I think you would be hard-pressed to find other urban districts that have had the disruption that Detroit has had."