Detroit, MI
Vitti urges Michigan leaders to see what Detroit schools are doing
Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has a message for much of the state of Michigan as well as for his district’s parents and other stakeholders.
Come see what Detroit is doing, Vitti urged in his annual State of the Schools address Thursday night.
“There are visitors across the country, superintendents, constantly coming in to learn what we’re doing,” Vitti said. “It needs to happen in Michigan.”
The usual narrative, Vitti said, of Detroit schools being the worst in the state, or even the nation, or that the state’s scores are being dragged down by Detroit? That narrative has been flipped on its head, he said. Reform is essential, he said, but other districts in Michigan should be looking to learn from what Detroit is doing.
“The conversation shouldn’t be, well, we need to change Michigan’s education because of Detroit being the problem,” Vitti said. “The data is not indicated. Now, (it’s) what do we learn from what DPSCD (has done) in the last 10 years that can be scaled, around recruiting teachers, around using one-time money for facilities and developing teachers, around core curriculum, around intervention, around training teachers.”
Nine years ago, for example, 59 schools were designated for the highest level of state academic support, meaning they either were performing in the bottom 5% in the state or, for high schools, had a graduation rate below 60%. Now, 25 schools meet one or both of those two criteria.
Vitti did not declare the work over, however. Several times during the speech, he highlighted the work left to be done, with attendance, test scores, and graduation rates.
But with many of those same data points, Vitti said, Detroit is on an upward trajectory, while the state averages are dropping. That means while the rest of the state is going backward in some areas, Detroit is still finding ways to move forward, he argued.
A Michigan Department of Education spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The district has closed the gap between its data and the state averages, most notably on graduation rates. Five years ago, Detroit’s graduation rate was 16 percentage points below the state average. In the 2023-24 school year, the most recent year of available graduation data, it was just 5 points below, although the state average did increase from 80% to 83% during that time.
Early literacy is an area where Detroit’s students are finally starting to show growth, even though their overall scores still are low.
The percentage of students in grades three through seven testing proficient on the state test (or for seventh grade, the PSAT exam) has risen 4 points since the 2016-17 school year, from 11% to 15%. That represents roughly an additional 820 students testing proficient, which Vitti said Thursday goes beyond whether students can read, but how they can apply what they have read.
In that same time frame, for the same group of students, the state average dropped 5 percentage points, from 46% to 41%.
In grades three through eight in math, Detroit has grown five percentage points over the last nine years, while the state average has dropped two points.
“The point here is we’re doing something better and different, and the trend is disciplined,” Vitti said. “Now we’ve got to celebrate that while we continue to narrow that gap and exceed the performance of the state. It is sustained, continual work.”
New Detroit Board of Education President LaTrice McClendon said in her remarks ahead of Vitti’s that the work is not done.
“We have made progress, but we still have a great deal of work to do,” she said. “Our district has come a long way but the needs of our students remain significant. And the expectations we set for ourselves must continue to rise.”
She said the moment was not for “comfort” but for “clarity.”
“There is no finish line for public education,” McClendon said. “Not for Detroit, not anywhere.”
Vitti attributed Detroit’s literacy growth in large part to the district’s embracing of curriculum rooted in what’s known as the science of reading, a way of teaching reading that aligns with how the brain learns to read. Detroit was an early adopter of the science of reading, which starts with a heavy dose of phonics but also emphasizes vocabulary and reading comprehension.
The Michigan Legislature passed two literacy laws aimed at pushing districts toward the science of reading, but it fell short of a strict mandate. The Michigan Department of Education is now lobbying the legislature for a requirement that districts must only use programs from a list vetted by the state for their strength in teaching the components of the science of reading.
Vitti said after his speech he would support such a mandate.
“Yeah, the state should say: ‘These are all curriculum that would be sufficient at being at grade level,’” Vitti said. “‘And here’s the list, but you got to pick from the list.’”
The state has published such a list, but it is only a recommendation that districts use programs from that list. Grant money is also available to choose a program from the list, adding an incentive for districts looking to make a change.
Vitti said the push from the Michigan Department of Education, now led by new State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko, the former Dearborn Public Schools leader, is an example of “visionary leadership” that he said has been lacking.
Vitti said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been supportive of education, but he would like to see more reforms. He pushed whoever becomes the next governor to look at both the need for more aid and more equitable funding, going to those most in need, and to look at reforms of the system, not just one or the other.
“I think you can’t just hold everyone accountable,” Vitti said. “I always talk about, for every degree of accountability, there has to be a degree of support, and you got to balance the two.”
Prior Republican governors and legislatures have emphasized accountability measures, while Democrats have focused more on funding, he said.’
“And I think it actually needs to be a balance of the two.”
jpignolet@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Bruce Campbell announces cancer diagnosis; ‘Fear not,’ he tells fans
Treatment will delay the Royal Oak-born actor’s plans to tour his new film ‘Ernie & Emma’ this summer.
Royal Oak-born movie star and cult hero Bruce Campbell announced on social media on Monday that he has been diagnosed cancer — a type that is “treatable” but not “curable,” he said.
“I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too,” the “Evil Dead” star, 67, wrote in a message posted to Instagram.
He went on to say “I’m not gonna go into any more detail,” and he didn’t. He said the public announcement had to do with scaling back appearances on his schedule, including tour dates behind his latest film, “Ernie & Emma.”
Campbell planned to show the movie June 5 at the Redford Theatre; as of Monday night, that date is still on the Redford schedule, but Campbell wrote in his note he plans to get “as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie ‘Ernie & Emma’ this fall.”
The movie is written, directed by and stars Campbell as a man who goes on a journey following the death of his wife. Campbell produced the movie alongside his wife, Ida Gearon, and filmed it in Oregon, where he now lives.
Campbell told The News in January he dedicated “Ernie & Emma” to his childhood moviemaking pals, including Scott Spiegel, who died of a heart attack in September 2025.
“It’s a callback to the carefree days of Super 8, where we could do whatever the f–k we wanted to do,” Campbell said of “Ernie & Emma.” “So I thought, ‘All the boys are responsible for this,’ so they’re all in there.”
Campbell got his start making movies around Metro Detroit with his childhood pal, Sam Raimi. Campbell starred in Raimi’s “Evil Dead” trilogy and has since appeared in most of Raimi’s films; Campbell makes a brief appearance in a photograph in the background of an early scene in Raimi’s latest, “Send Help.”
He’s also an author; Campbell’s autobiography “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor” was published in 2001.
In his post on social media, Campbell thanked fans and said he was not out to elicit sympathy.
“Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around for a while,” he wrote.
agraham@detroitnews.com
Detroit, MI
Michigan State Police sends message to drivers after trooper involved in hit and run:
“Slow down and move over” is the message that Michigan State Police is sending to drivers after one of its troopers in a parked patrol car was struck while investigating a crash this weekend. The driver of that vehicle fled the scene.
Michigan State Police tells CBS News Detroit that we’re two months into the year, and it has had six incidents across the state where patrol cars were struck by oncoming vehicles. One of those incidents occurred on Sunday evening.
“Could have been much more tragic,” said MSP Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez, First District public information officer.
Gonzalez says on Sunday, an MSP trooper was near M-10 and Schaefer Highway in Detroit, simply doing his job, when his patrol car was hit from behind.
“Trooper was out there, and he was investigating a crash when, at the time, a Jeep SUV drove into the rear of the parked vehicle,” Gonzalez said.
The impact slid the trooper’s car into a concrete wall. The 29-year-old Detroit woman driving the Jeep SUV struck the center median, got out of the vehicle, and ran away.
“Not sure why they did it. Maybe not paying attention if they were distracted. They’re attempting to locate her at this time,” said Lt. Gonzalez.
The trooper walked away with minor injuries. Gonzalez says this incident is an example of why Michigan’s Move Over Law was put in place many years ago. The law, which went into effect in 2019, requires drivers to move over into the next lane and reduce their speed by at least 10 mph when emergency or service vehicles — police, fire, rescue, ambulance and road service — have their lights activated.
Drivers who are not able to move over are still required to reduce their speed.
“Trying to do our jobs, however, people are not paying attention. The law is easy. It’s simple. You see us, you see our lights activated, you have to slow down ten miles below the posted speed limit, and then if able, move over to the next occupied available lane,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez says crashes like this can be deadly and often avoided.
“One life lost over something that was a totally preventable crash, it’s way too much. We’re asking that you slow down and move over when you see our lights. It’s a simple message that we’ve been pushing out for years,” he said.
Sunday’s crash remains under investigation. Michigan State Police detectives are still working to track down the 29-year-old suspect.
In the meantime, police are out enforcing the Move Over Law.
Detroit, MI
Rex Satterfield’s 1956 Bel Air takes 2026 Ridler Award in Detroit
The impact and history of autos in Detroit, The Motor City
Here are some facts about Detroit’s auto industry.
Rex Satterfield hoped to see his 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible snag one of the BASF Great 8 finalist spots at this year’s Detroit Autorama. But winning the Ridler Award — one of the highest honors in the custom car business — was something he didn’t foresee.
“It’s just overwhelming right now,” said the man from Russellville, Tennessee, as he left a ballroom at downtown’s Huntington Place and made his way back to the show floor on Sunday, March 1. “We weren’t expecting this.”
Getting a car recognized as one of the BASF Great 8 vehicles is a win in and of itself as they are considered the “absolute pinnacle of custom automotive craftsmanship worldwide,” according to the show. The cars undergo an intensive judging process.
And this effort had an unexpected and emotional complication with the passing in December 2024 of the original builder, Jeff Wolfenbarger, who was battling cancer even as he continued working on the car named “Elegant Lady.”
Kevin Riffey of Kevin Riffey’s Hot Rods and Restorations in Knoxville stepped in to finish the work Wolfenbarger started. He’d had two other cars in the past make the Great 8. He said the goal with this vehicle was straightforward, calling it a “purpose-built show car.”
From its prominent spot at the front of the show floor, “Elegant Lady” sported a creamy exterior, dubbed Light Coffee. The car carries a 1,000 horsepower Don Hardy race engine. The gauges, wheels and gas tank are custom, and the dash is from a 1956 Pontiac.
Satterfield plans to show the car around some and enjoy the moment with it. He said he’s been a car guy since he was a little kid.
The Ridler Award, named in honor of Detroit Autorama’s first publicist, Don Ridler, comes with a $10,000 prize. It was awarded on the final day of this year’s Detroit Autorama, which ran Friday, Feb. 27-Sunday, March 1. This was the event’s 73rd year.
Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Send your tips and suggestions about cool automotive stuff to elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
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