Boosting Academic Excellence in Detroit Public Schools

Challenge

In 2019, in an effort to rebuild Detroit’s public schools, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti released Blueprint 2020—a comprehensive plan for preschool through 12th grade programs. The plan had three major goals.

	Improving language and literacy skills
	Driving academic excellence through a whole-child approach
	Engaging families in their children’s learning

Director of Early Childhood Anita Totty sought a turnkey solution that would help Detroit’s preschool programs meet these objectives.

Solution

Totty and her committee of pre-K teachers and administrators selected Teaching Strategies’ connected curriculum, assessment, and family engagement tools as the solution for the DPSCD preschool programs.

	The Creative Curriculum helped boost kindergarten readiness through high-quality, whole-child preschool instruction, with a focus on foundational language and literacy skills.
	Integrated GOLD formative assessment helped inform and affirm growth for every learner, while saving teachers time on documentation.
	Families embraced the ReadyRosie app to support and document learning at home, with 61% adopting it withing the first 6 months.

DPSCD also partnered with Teaching Strategies to offer educators online professional development, coaching, and curricular resources to support them through the pandemic and help make implementation a success.

Results

Strong growth in meeting widely held expectations

Within the first year of implementation, students demonstrated strong growth in meeting or exceeding widely held expectations across every domain, increasing from 22.2% to 63.8% in language and from 29.6% to 79.1% in literacy. In addition, DPSCD students made significant gains in demonstrating kindergarten readiness—with improvements in language increasing from 10% to 50% and in literacy jumping from 5% to 50%.

Streamlined assessment helps inform instruction

Teachers and families alike embraced GOLD and used it to capture and document observations that helped inform instruction in the areas of development where children needed the most support.

61% of families support and document learning at home

The ReadyRosie family app helped educators effectively engage families and create opportunities for driving learning, development, and family outcomes. Families expressed joy in building one-on-one connections with their children and in learning more about where and how to support them.

Anywhere, anytime professional development supports implementation

100% of DPSCD teachers participated in online professional development to effectively implement the connected solution, enrich their knowledge, and attain certifications.

Professional development in year 1

Plans to continue their valued partnership

The unique challenges of the pandemic have subsided, but DPSCD has found a supportive partner in Teaching Strategies, as well as an integrated solution that provides transformative ease-of-use for teachers and families.

Delve Deeper

Learn more about Detroit Public Schools’ implementation and outcomes by downloading the full case study.