LANSING, Mich. — Thousands of Michigan elementary teachers are back in training this school year, learning research-based methods for teaching children to read as the state tries to reverse a decade of sliding literacy scores.
The push now has the force of law. Public Act 26, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in July, requires educators in kindergarten through fifth grade who teach or support reading to complete state-funded science of reading training by the 2031-32 school year. Until the law passed, the training was voluntary.
The science of reading is a long-established body of research on how children learn to read, built around phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Teacher preparation programs across Michigan must now include it as well.
The state has paid for five years for LETRS, a reading course for teachers offered by Lexia, and it remains an approved provider under the new law. State education officials say more than 8,000 educators have completed it and about 4,300 more are enrolled, and 28 districts have adopted or committed to the state LETRS course. The full course runs eight units over three school years.
The department released a nine-page statewide implementation plan this month spelling out how school districts, intermediate districts and charter schools will get their K-5 staff through the training.
The need is plain in the test results. Michigan reading scores have fallen since 2015, with the steepest drop during the pandemic, and state data released last month showed only about four in 10 third graders, 38%, reaching proficiency in reading.
Literacy has also surfaced in the race for governor. Republican John James has floated bringing back the third-grade retention rule from the Read by Three law, which lawmakers repealed in 2023, while Democrat Jocelyn Benson has called for more literacy resources so every child reads by third grade.
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