Michigan lawmakers continue to grapple with best way to improve childhood literacy

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The vast majority of students who qualified to repeat third grade under a controversial 2016 childhood literacy bill did not actually get held back, according to a new report from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC).

The “Read by Grade Three” bill , aimed at improving childhood literacy, which was signed by GOP former Gov. Rick Snyder, required that elementary school students who scored poorly on a standardized test on reading repeat third grade. Students could move on to fourth grade for exemptions including a parent request, being new to the school district or demonstrating proficiency in other subjects.

State Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth), chair of the House Education Committee, told the Advance this indicates that families and communities don’t want their kids held back, and policymakers need to find new solutions.

“It definitely shows that parents and communities do not want their children held back,” Koleszar said. “Especially when it’s based on an arbitrary test score. There’s so much more that factors into that. At the end of the day … kids are people, not products.”

The new standards kicked in after COVID-19 shut down schools and halted testing in the 2021-22 school year, but it was ultimately short-lived. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation amending the bill in 2023, axing the requirement that poor readers had to repeat third grade. Many saw the retention policy as punitive.

But the study shows that 92% of third-graders who qualified for a second year of third grade  during the three school years the program ran did not get held back. Tara Kilbride, the interim associate director of EPIC, said retention policies varied by school, with charter schools holding back 4.5% of all their third-graders in 2023, and public schools only holding back 1.2% of third-graders.

Kilbride said this can explain why more Black students and economically disadvantaged students are held back another year, as students from those demographics are more likely to attend charter schools.

“We found that a lot of this seems to be driven by particular schools’ approach to retention,” Kilbride said. “A lot of charter schools retain students at higher rates, and educators in charter schools on our surveys also expressed more positive views of retention than what we saw in traditional public schools.”

The bill also required additional support for students who qualified for another year of third grade, regardless of if they received an exemption or not. Kilbride said teachers and administrators surveyed for the study tended to prefer other learning supports over retention. Supports include one-on-one time or small group instruction or early monitoring for reading capabilities.

Current legislation

Lawmakers have continued to tackle gaps in proficient childhood literacy.

In March, the Senate passed SB 567 and SB 568 , which mandate screening for dyslexia and phonics-based reading.

The goal would be to catch signs of dyslexia early in a student’s education, so that they can receive additional support to catch up. Koleszar said the bill would help kids who might not have dyslexia but still struggle with reading, as the bills wouldn’t provide resources for diagnosing just identifying symptoms.

Debate over holding back third graders roils state legislatures

The package would have teachers embrace decoding and word recognition education, as students who struggled with reading did not have those skills generally, said Kimberly St. Martin, the director of the Multi-tiered System of Supports, a technical assistance center for teachers.

The bills also support early readers before and after third grade.

“We know that it is good that these bills go beyond third grade, because we have more reading difficulties than just up to third grade that we’re needing to address,” St. Martin said.

The bills are currently in the House Education Committee. Koleszar said he hopes to get the bills to the House floor in the fall.

“While I object to the retention piece, I’m glad that we got rid of it, I am incredibly happy that there still are a lot of supports there,” Koleszar said. “It’s just up to us now as a state to continue to support kids who may be struggling readers and do everything we can to help them be as successful as they can be.”

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