From right to left, third grade teachers Ally Brown, Andrea Wandel and Heather Schmidt of Edgerton Trails Elementary School in Rockford meet to plan instruction, intervention and enrichment for their students.
(Ed. Note: This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Visit the newsroom online: bridgemi.com.)
By Isabel Lohman, Ron French and Mike Wilkinson
Bridge Michigan
School resumed throughout Michigan this month, and there’s plenty of reasons to worry.
Scores in most districts are below pre-pandemic levels. Third-grade reading proficiency is at a record low, even though Michigan increased spending at a higher rate than all but nine states over the past 10 years.
Statewide, nearly 70 percent of districts had lower reading scores in 2024-2025 than 2018-2019, while nearly 80 percent did worse in math. It’s a problem from districts that are large like Chippewa Valley in Macomb County and Kentwood in Kent County, urban like Muskegon and Hamtramck and rural like Hillsdale and Kalkaska.
In a separate test, only five states scored worse than Michigan in fourth-grade reading.
The challenges are huge for Michigan’s next governor and incoming state superintendent, Glenn Maleyko, but not all districts are struggling.
Bridge Michigan spent weeks talking to educators whose students are bucking trends and excelling in reading.
Common themes emerged: better training for teachers, embracing proven curricula, empowering literacy coaches and using data to improve outcomes.
“Don’t follow the shiny thing,” said Camela Diaz, executive director of teaching and learning at Caledonia Community Schools, where 75.2 percent of third graders are proficient at reading, compared to 38.9 percent statewide.
“Look at what’s research-based, where you know that you have an opportunity to really see some change and then, stick with it.”
The state is making moves toward more evidence-based teaching and learning materials.
Michigan has taken steps to make innovations taken by more successful districts available statewide, including:
• Passing laws requiring schools to screen students for characteristics of dyslexia and teach literacy in ways supported by research by the 2027-2028 school year.
• Budgeting $34 million to train teachers on something known as “the science of reading,” a wide body of research about how people best learn to read, including phonics. So far, 5,000 educators have completed the course.
• Setting aside $87 million for districts to purchase research-backed literacy materials. The state budget also includes money for literacy coaches to help teachers improve their literacy instruction.
Educators warn that change can take years, and Michigan must remain committed to strategies. The state has a history of passing a policy and then changing course soon after. Districts used to be required to hold struggling third graders back but that requirement went away just a few years later.
“It’s like trying to turn a ship around in the middle of the ocean,” said Spencer Byrd, superintendent of Cheboygan Area Schools, which has improved scores by investing big in early grades.
“It takes three to five years (to achieve impact) and then, the trick is sustaining the momentum.”
Here’s what Bridge Michigan learned from districts across the state.
—————
East China: Changing curriculum
In East China, the 3,400-student district in St. Clair County stopped using some reading instruction techniques and went with a consolidated curriculum.
East China switched from a balanced literacy approach to a structured literacy philosophy. Instead of students guessing a word by looking at a picture or skipping a word and coming back to it, teachers are teaching a specific skill and students are using texts built to support that skill.
For example, if students see the word “cow” in a text, they will have already learned what letter blends make up the word. The goal is for students to learn these blends and words and be able to apply them to any text, Fisher said.
Third grade reading proficiency rose from 39.4 percent in spring 2019 to 55.4 percent in 2025.
“It’s a huge overhaul,” said Laci Fisher, who recently left the district as elementary curriculum coordinator to become an assistant professor teaching reading science.
“When you go from kind of having a bunch of mismatched pieces to this big box of all the components you need to be teaching, it is very different.”
Statewide, 368 school districts were recently awarded money to buy literacy curriculum from a list of vetted vendors. It’s part of $87 million in the state budget for literacy materials.
—————
Rockford: a commitment to training
Outside Grand Rapids, Rockford Public Schools believes in the power of collaboration, to the point of dismissing school 90 minutes early twice a month so teachers can strategize how to improve learning.
Reading scores are up since before the pandemic. In 2024, 71 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 were reading at grade level or above, up from 64 percent in 2019.
To be sure, the district draws from an affluent community and does a better job keeping students in class (11 percent chronic absenteeism compared to 30 percent statewide), but educators say its biggest success is commitment to the science of reading over the past four years.
The district also has a new K-5 curriculum.
—————
Ferndale: diving into data
In Ferndale outside Detroit, school leaders say better data is one reason the district achieved one of the state’s biggest jumps in third grade literacy.
Since the pandemic, proficiency in English at Ferndale Public Schools has increased to 48.4 percent from 37 percent.
District leaders regularly monitor student and classroom data and check scores and progress on upper elementary grades. Data monitoring increases for students who are behind and they’re given extra support like small group instruction.
Superintendent Camille Hibbler credits a grant-funded K-3 literacy coach’s “pivotal” support to teachers and helping teachers understand student data.
“It’s taking what we see on the paper and translating that into what needs to happen in the classroom to make those gains that we have been seeing.”
The district recently switched curriculum and has also emphasized teacher training.
Monitoring student data more frequently or closely can allow districts to pivot quicker on changes to teaching. Statewide, there is $11.5 million for districts to administer reading and math tests throughout the year.
—————
Cheboygan: Early grade emphasis and patience
At the top of the Lower Peninsula in Cheboygan, the district is providing more support to so-called “COVID babies” who come to school with greater needs, said Superintendent Spencer Byrd.
“There are social and emotional issues, problems fitting in a rise in autism being a designated issue at a very young age. We are seeing behaviors that are downright scary,” Byrd said.
The district has a “kindergarten bootcamp” each August to help kids adjust to classroom routines, two social workers and a roaming teacher who works with students who are struggling academically.
Third grade reading proficiency has grown from 43.9 percent in 2019 to 55.9 percent in 2025.
Teachers meet regularly with their grade-level peers to study test data to figure out which kids need what help.
“It’s important for us to know who are the 10 percent or 20 percent who are not keeping up,” Byrd said. “Those are the students that we focus on.”
Byrd suggests Cheboygan’s success is the culmination of multiple decisions made by the district, along with something that critics say Michigan’s K-12 system often lacks: consistency.
—————
Redford Union: supports for older students
Outside Detroit, Redford Union has increased proficiency by giving more help to seventh and eighth graders.
All students in those grades take a one semester reading enrichment class and a one semester math enrichment class. Students work through assignments and exercises tailored to their ability level through an online program called IXL and a teacher pulls students into small groups.
“I think there’s just a renewed focus on how important those baseline skills are to student success,” Superintendent Jasen Witt told Bridge. “I think we’re just more dialed in on how important those building blocks are to getting our students where we want to be.”
The 2,000-student district has improved reading proficiency among third through seventh graders but the scores still remain far lower than the state average.
The district also added instructional coaches, trained teachers on literacy practices and moved sixth graders back to the elementary building.
The district works with Varsity Tutors to provide tutoring three times a week during the school day, which costs $190,000 a year through federal and state funds.
During the 2023-2024 school year, Michigan provided $150 million for tutoring and other efforts to help students catch up. In the past, school districts also used federal pandemic funds to pay for tutoring.
“We’re banking on them not completely pulling the plug on federal funding, or even state categorical funding and things like that,” Witt said.
By Isabel Lohman, Ron French and Mike Wilkinson
Bridge Michigan
School resumed throughout Michigan this month, and there’s plenty of reasons to worry.
Scores in most districts are below pre-pandemic levels. Third-grade reading proficiency is at a record low, even though Michigan increased spending at a higher rate than all but nine states over the past 10 years.
Statewide, nearly 70 percent of districts had lower reading scores in 2024-2025 than 2018-2019, while nearly 80 percent did worse in math. It’s a problem from districts that are large like Chippewa Valley in Macomb County and Kentwood in Kent County, urban like Muskegon and Hamtramck and rural like Hillsdale and Kalkaska.
In a separate test, only five states scored worse than Michigan in fourth-grade reading.
The challenges are huge for Michigan’s next governor and incoming state superintendent, Glenn Maleyko, but not all districts are struggling.
Bridge Michigan spent weeks talking to educators whose students are bucking trends and excelling in reading.
Common themes emerged: better training for teachers, embracing proven curricula, empowering literacy coaches and using data to improve outcomes.
“Don’t follow the shiny thing,” said Camela Diaz, executive director of teaching and learning at Caledonia Community Schools, where 75.2 percent of third graders are proficient at reading, compared to 38.9 percent statewide.
“Look at what’s research-based, where you know that you have an opportunity to really see some change and then, stick with it.”
The state is making moves toward more evidence-based teaching and learning materials.
Michigan has taken steps to make innovations taken by more successful districts available statewide, including:
• Passing laws requiring schools to screen students for characteristics of dyslexia and teach literacy in ways supported by research by the 2027-2028 school year.
• Budgeting $34 million to train teachers on something known as “the science of reading,” a wide body of research about how people best learn to read, including phonics. So far, 5,000 educators have completed the course.
• Setting aside $87 million for districts to purchase research-backed literacy materials. The state budget also includes money for literacy coaches to help teachers improve their literacy instruction.
Educators warn that change can take years, and Michigan must remain committed to strategies. The state has a history of passing a policy and then changing course soon after. Districts used to be required to hold struggling third graders back but that requirement went away just a few years later.
“It’s like trying to turn a ship around in the middle of the ocean,” said Spencer Byrd, superintendent of Cheboygan Area Schools, which has improved scores by investing big in early grades.
“It takes three to five years (to achieve impact) and then, the trick is sustaining the momentum.”
Here’s what Bridge Michigan learned from districts across the state.
—————
East China: Changing curriculum
In East China, the 3,400-student district in St. Clair County stopped using some reading instruction techniques and went with a consolidated curriculum.
East China switched from a balanced literacy approach to a structured literacy philosophy. Instead of students guessing a word by looking at a picture or skipping a word and coming back to it, teachers are teaching a specific skill and students are using texts built to support that skill.
For example, if students see the word “cow” in a text, they will have already learned what letter blends make up the word. The goal is for students to learn these blends and words and be able to apply them to any text, Fisher said.
Third grade reading proficiency rose from 39.4 percent in spring 2019 to 55.4 percent in 2025.
“It’s a huge overhaul,” said Laci Fisher, who recently left the district as elementary curriculum coordinator to become an assistant professor teaching reading science.
“When you go from kind of having a bunch of mismatched pieces to this big box of all the components you need to be teaching, it is very different.”
Statewide, 368 school districts were recently awarded money to buy literacy curriculum from a list of vetted vendors. It’s part of $87 million in the state budget for literacy materials.
—————
Rockford: a commitment to training
Outside Grand Rapids, Rockford Public Schools believes in the power of collaboration, to the point of dismissing school 90 minutes early twice a month so teachers can strategize how to improve learning.
Reading scores are up since before the pandemic. In 2024, 71 percent of students in grades 3 through 8 were reading at grade level or above, up from 64 percent in 2019.
To be sure, the district draws from an affluent community and does a better job keeping students in class (11 percent chronic absenteeism compared to 30 percent statewide), but educators say its biggest success is commitment to the science of reading over the past four years.
The district also has a new K-5 curriculum.
—————
Ferndale: diving into data
In Ferndale outside Detroit, school leaders say better data is one reason the district achieved one of the state’s biggest jumps in third grade literacy.
Since the pandemic, proficiency in English at Ferndale Public Schools has increased to 48.4 percent from 37 percent.
District leaders regularly monitor student and classroom data and check scores and progress on upper elementary grades. Data monitoring increases for students who are behind and they’re given extra support like small group instruction.
Superintendent Camille Hibbler credits a grant-funded K-3 literacy coach’s “pivotal” support to teachers and helping teachers understand student data.
“It’s taking what we see on the paper and translating that into what needs to happen in the classroom to make those gains that we have been seeing.”
The district recently switched curriculum and has also emphasized teacher training.
Monitoring student data more frequently or closely can allow districts to pivot quicker on changes to teaching. Statewide, there is $11.5 million for districts to administer reading and math tests throughout the year.
—————
Cheboygan: Early grade emphasis and patience
At the top of the Lower Peninsula in Cheboygan, the district is providing more support to so-called “COVID babies” who come to school with greater needs, said Superintendent Spencer Byrd.
“There are social and emotional issues, problems fitting in a rise in autism being a designated issue at a very young age. We are seeing behaviors that are downright scary,” Byrd said.
The district has a “kindergarten bootcamp” each August to help kids adjust to classroom routines, two social workers and a roaming teacher who works with students who are struggling academically.
Third grade reading proficiency has grown from 43.9 percent in 2019 to 55.9 percent in 2025.
Teachers meet regularly with their grade-level peers to study test data to figure out which kids need what help.
“It’s important for us to know who are the 10 percent or 20 percent who are not keeping up,” Byrd said. “Those are the students that we focus on.”
Byrd suggests Cheboygan’s success is the culmination of multiple decisions made by the district, along with something that critics say Michigan’s K-12 system often lacks: consistency.
—————
Redford Union: supports for older students
Outside Detroit, Redford Union has increased proficiency by giving more help to seventh and eighth graders.
All students in those grades take a one semester reading enrichment class and a one semester math enrichment class. Students work through assignments and exercises tailored to their ability level through an online program called IXL and a teacher pulls students into small groups.
“I think there’s just a renewed focus on how important those baseline skills are to student success,” Superintendent Jasen Witt told Bridge. “I think we’re just more dialed in on how important those building blocks are to getting our students where we want to be.”
The 2,000-student district has improved reading proficiency among third through seventh graders but the scores still remain far lower than the state average.
The district also added instructional coaches, trained teachers on literacy practices and moved sixth graders back to the elementary building.
The district works with Varsity Tutors to provide tutoring three times a week during the school day, which costs $190,000 a year through federal and state funds.
During the 2023-2024 school year, Michigan provided $150 million for tutoring and other efforts to help students catch up. In the past, school districts also used federal pandemic funds to pay for tutoring.
“We’re banking on them not completely pulling the plug on federal funding, or even state categorical funding and things like that,” Witt said.
Victory Supports State Budget Constitutional Amendment
Sen. Roger Victory has co-sponsored a constitutional amendment that would withhold pay from lawmakers and the governor if the state budget is not completed by the statutory July 1 deadline.
“Every worker in America must do their job to continue getting paid,” said Victory, R-Hudsonville. “Government should be no different. If lawmakers and the governor want to keep receiving their taxpayer-funded salaries, they need to show up to work, get the job done, and do so on time.”
Senate Joint Resolution E would amend the Michigan constitution to require the Legislature to pass all general budget bills and for the governor to sign them by July 1 each year. If either branch fails to meet the deadline, both the governor and all sitting lawmakers would forgo their salaries until a deal is reached.
A similar resolution was introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives last month and received 70 yes votes.
“Schools and families shouldn’t be left wondering what their funding will look like when the year has already begun, and programs that people rely on shouldn’t be held in limbo,” Victory said. “A budget takes careful consideration, and getting our finances in order should be a top priority.
“We have a job to do, and it’s time we get it done.”
“Every worker in America must do their job to continue getting paid,” said Victory, R-Hudsonville. “Government should be no different. If lawmakers and the governor want to keep receiving their taxpayer-funded salaries, they need to show up to work, get the job done, and do so on time.”
Senate Joint Resolution E would amend the Michigan constitution to require the Legislature to pass all general budget bills and for the governor to sign them by July 1 each year. If either branch fails to meet the deadline, both the governor and all sitting lawmakers would forgo their salaries until a deal is reached.
A similar resolution was introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives last month and received 70 yes votes.
“Schools and families shouldn’t be left wondering what their funding will look like when the year has already begun, and programs that people rely on shouldn’t be held in limbo,” Victory said. “A budget takes careful consideration, and getting our finances in order should be a top priority.
“We have a job to do, and it’s time we get it done.”
Slagh to Host Office Hours in Zeeland
State Rep. Bradley Slagh, R-Zeeland, invites local residents to join him during his morning office hours in Jenison, Hudsonville and Zeeland on Monday, Sept. 29.
Rep. Slagh will be available at the following times and locations:
• 7 to 8 a.m. at Frank’s Restaurant, 134 E. Main Ave., Zeeland
• 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at Signatures Coffee & Espresso, 6375 Balsam Dr., Hudsonville
• 10 to 11 a.m. at Big Apple Bagel at 306 Baldwin St., Jenison
In addition to hearing from the people he represents, the representative said he looks forward to providing an update on the status of state budget negotiations.
No appointments are necessary to attend office hours. Those interested in scheduling a time to speak with the representative outside of these scheduled office hours can call his office at (517) 373-0841 or email BradleySlagh@house.mi.gov.
Rep. Slagh will be available at the following times and locations:
• 7 to 8 a.m. at Frank’s Restaurant, 134 E. Main Ave., Zeeland
• 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at Signatures Coffee & Espresso, 6375 Balsam Dr., Hudsonville
• 10 to 11 a.m. at Big Apple Bagel at 306 Baldwin St., Jenison
In addition to hearing from the people he represents, the representative said he looks forward to providing an update on the status of state budget negotiations.
No appointments are necessary to attend office hours. Those interested in scheduling a time to speak with the representative outside of these scheduled office hours can call his office at (517) 373-0841 or email BradleySlagh@house.mi.gov.
