DPSCD high school students could be paid to take literacy classes

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Detroit County high school students who are two or more grade levels behind in reading will receive cash gift cards as an incentive to attend after-school tutoring sessions.

The amount of the gift certificates and other details are still being finalized by Detroit Public Schools Community District officials. The initiative was included in the district budget approved by the school board in June and is expected to be rolled out over the course of the year. School year that begins on Monday.

It arose from a discussion at a meeting of the school board's finance committee, said board member Misha Stallworth. While the committee was discussing Spend money from lawsuits against literacy difficulties on elementary school studentsStallworth said she raised questions about incentives and promoting literacy at the high school level. (Proceeds from the settlement will not go toward funding student incentives.)

“When we think about this literacy litigation and its origins, the question that comes to my mind is how do we focus on those students who missed out on some of the changes that younger students have benefited from,” Stallworth said in an interview with Chalkbeat.

Detroit School Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email that paying for tutoring for high school students is important to overcome the “negative impact of emergency management on student achievement.”

From 2009 to 2017, the district was controlled by state-appointed emergency managers. Plaintiffs in the literacy lawsuit had argued that emergency management created poor conditions that made it difficult for students to learn to read, a claim that was upheld in the settlement.

Board member Sonya Mays, who chairs the finance committee, said she is willing to try innovative ideas to address literacy and high rates of chronic absenteeism – two pressing problems in the district.

From spring 2024 53.9% of eighth graders read two or more grade levels below the reading levelAccording to the district, this figure is 5 percentage points lower than the previous year.

Gabrielle Groce, an English teacher at a district high school, said she hopes paying high school students to attend intervention sessions will improve their reading and writing skills.

“I just want to see our black and brown kids, especially, succeed,” Groce said. “If it helps them or makes them better people through literacy, then I'm 100% on board.”

How the district can create the greatest chances of success

District officials are still working out details, such as how much students will be paid and who will offer the sessions. The district will likely offer the program at each high school through its academic interventionists, Vitti said.

These details could determine the success of the program.

Mattie Morgan, the great-grandmother of a sixth-grader and a high school freshman, believes the program could resonate with students, but she wonders if they will stick with it long-term.

Elizabeth Birr Moje, dean of the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan, said that with external incentives – such as when students complete tasks for money rather than for their own satisfaction – there is always a risk that a participant will do what is necessary to receive the incentive without engaging in intensive learning.

But Moje believes the plan is a pragmatic approach because it gives some students who would otherwise have to work the opportunity to earn an income while improving their literacy skills.

Additionally, if the program offers engaging activities, social interaction and opportunities for students to improve their reading skills, it can help maintain student engagement, she said.

Moje said it is also important who teaches the course. DPSCD has not yet decided whether an outside provider or internal staff will offer the sessions. However, Vitti said the intervention will use the Orton-Gillingham approach, a multisensory method of literacy.

“The best results in tutoring are when it's delivered intensively by a trained tutor, and preferably a certified teacher, and that's just for general tutoring. So when we're talking about helping someone who really needs that reading help, they really need people who know what they're doing, not just volunteers.”

She hopes the district will ensure that the intervention is tailored to each student's needs, since not all students struggle with the same issues. For example, a ninth-grader who reads at a seventh-grade level likely doesn't need phonics instruction because they already have an understanding of reading concepts.

“For example, a program that focuses only on basic skills is unlikely to meet the needs of most students, but it certainly will not meet the needs of all students. Likewise, a program that focuses only on high-level comprehension skills may not meet the needs of all students,” Moje said.

Teacher Groce also wonders if transportation might be a problem. She remembers some students not coming to school because they didn't have a ride.

Funding program supports students who have to work

When teens have to combine school and work, they're pulled in different directions, Stallworth says. But if they can't read well, it will affect their ability to have jobs as adults that can support themselves and their families.

“It can be difficult to make them feel good, to motivate them, and to manage their time so that they can meet their economic needs and take courses or additional literacy activities – things that are outside of their normal class schedule,” Stallworth says.

Morgan's great-granddaughter, who is currently in high school, talks about wanting to have a job so she can earn her own money. Morgan agrees that financial incentives would benefit high school students like her great-granddaughter who would otherwise have to look for another job.

Moje likes that the program rewards students' efforts and willingness to improve their skills, rather than rewarding them based on predetermined academic outcomes. She said children who are not performing up to par with their grade level often experience stress over not wanting to do well in school, and there's no need to make them worry more.

“We are really investing in children who, for whatever reason, have not had the opportunity to learn to read and write at the level they need to be happy and successful in society,” Moje said. “We recognize that young people have other things going on in their lives and some of them may actually need the income.”

Alex Klaus is a summer intern at Chalkbeat Detroit.