Press Release

ANN ARBOR, MI  (December 7, 2011) – Detroit’s student achievement continues to be devastatingly low — and has changed very little since 2009 — according to today’s release of results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The NAEP’s Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) for fourth-grade and eighth-grade reading and math shows Detroit’s performance is abysmal, ranking last in fourth-grade math, fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math. Detroit ranks second to last in eighth-grade reading. Detroit’s African American performance, which ranked last in 2009 for fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading, continues to be last in fourth-grade math.  Though Detroit Latino students’ scores increased slightly in fourth- and eighth-grade reading, they are still performing far below the national average.

“Students in leading U.S. urban districts are learning at far higher levels than our students in Detroit,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, Michigan’s only non-partisan education policy and research organization that advocates on behalf of Michigan students.  Ed Trust-Midwest’s central mission is to close Michigan’s achievement gap.

“This data underscore the importance of ensuring education reforms or changes in state law are focused on providing quality schools.  Detroit’s overall charter school achievement mirrors traditional public school achievement levels, according to other data.  As a state, we’ve got to focus on building high-performing schools in Detroit – and other urban communities – regardless of governance structure.”

Because the TUDA provides a national snapshot of student performance in 21 U.S. urban public school districts, its data provide important information about how Detroit stacks up against its peer cities across the country. Detroit’s performance has not improved much since the last administration of the TUDA in 2009.

Detroit’s scores did not significantly improve since 2009 on fourth- and eighth-grade reading and fourth-grade math. Eighth-grade math is the one subject in which Detroit has shown some improvement, even though the overall results are still the lowest in the country.

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Download:

TUDA Results 2011 v 2.pptx