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Michigan students lag in reading. Will mandatory teacher training help?

Danielle Cover, a first grade teacher at Ferndale Lower Elementary School, took a training course that some state leaders want to make mandatory. She calls it ‘the best training I have received about literacy instruction.’ Photo credit: Isabel Lohman/Bridge Michigan.

Editor note: This story was originally published by��Bridge Michigan��(bridgemi.com), a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from Bridge Michigan, sign up for a free Bridge Michigan newsletter����().”��

by Isobel Lohman (Bridge Michigan)

First grade teacher Danielle Cover remembers when she learned about literacy during her university training.

But it was years later where the Ferndale Lower Elementary School teacher had an “eye-opening” experience and learned just how important it is for students to be able to piece together individual letter sounds and blends of letters.

Cover took��training. The training focuses on how the brain learns to read, often referred to as the “science of reading.”

“It is hands down, the best training I have received about literacy instruction down to the most finite piece of building the code.”

Building that code takes time, and teachers say explicit instruction. No more pushing students to guess a word based on a picture or other cue.

By the 2027-2028 school year, districts must assure the state that teachers have been trained in the science of reading, said DeNesha Rawls-Smith, literacy unit manager at the Office of Educational Supports at the Michigan Department of Education.

Third graders are reading at����in Michigan.

Training teachers in LETRS is one solution that has shown promise — and teachers who’ve taken the course agree that it works. What educators don’t agree on is whether they should be forced to take it.

Former State Superintendent Michael Rice, who retired last week, repeatedly��, and the State Board of Education����for a requirement last month.

“We know that phonics is important,” said State Board of Education vice president Tiffany Tilley, a Democrat, who sponsored the board resolution. “We know that LETRS training is working in other states. And I really believe that this could help in Michigan.”

The Michigan Education Association, a teacher union, said that while it supports efforts to train teachers, it not feasible nor fair to require teachers to complete the time-intensive training, said Thomas Morgan, an MEA spokesperson.

He said teachers should not be expected to give up their nights or weekends and that even if teachers are given time during the school day, that could shortchange students by taking their regular teacher out of the classroom.

“We need to make sure that school districts have what they need to provide these professional development opportunities for teachers,” Morgan told Bridge.

Gubernatorial candidates Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, Former Attorney General Mike Cox, a Republican, both they would make science of reading training mandatory.

‘An awakening’

Educators are already changing how they teach as a result of training programs like LETRS, as well as new curricula that districts are adopting.

“Even though I had been teaching reading for 20 years, I didn’t know how to teach reading,” said Kim Metzger, a K-5 instructional coach for English language arts Westwood Community Schools in Dearborn Heights.

“And we had great oral language, we could talk, I could help with writing, but I couldn’t really help them with reading because I wasn’t teaching phonics.”

Metzger experience with LETRS training is similar to many teachers across the state and country.

Rawls-Smith said the department has received several emails and testimonials on the effectiveness of the training, but it doesn’t have “any official quantitative data” on how it affects student performance.

“It an awakening occurring with educators like ‘I just didn’t know what I didn’t know,” said Rawls-Smith.

In the popular podcast series��, teachers across the country recount how they realized that their teaching practices were falling short. Cover, the Ferndale teacher, said “you couldn’t unhear what you heard.”

Long hours��

Educators told Bridge they spent their nights or weekends on the training. The elementary course can take��, while the early childhood course is expected to take����and the administrator course is expected to take��.

Still, the Legislature should require “all current and future K–5 educators complete LETRS training within a reasonable timeframe and to fund this mandate” under the����the State Board of Education passed last month.

Michigan is not alone in its emphasis on LETRS, which is one of several such reading training programs offered to school districts nationwide.

“We’re talking about roughly half of the United States has some measure of a state level implementation with Lexia LETRS,” said Cassandra Wheeler, national senior education adviser for Lexia. “Either they’re currently experiencing it or they’ve just experienced it.”

In Mississippi, which has outperformed Michigan in fourth grade reading in recent years, leaders have cited����as one reason the state has made gains. Mississippi now uses a��.

How much has Michigan spent on the training?��

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer����Tuesday, which includes $10 million for the training.

In the previous four fiscal years, the state put a total of $34 million toward the LETRS training.

Statewide, 5,200 educators have completed the course and another 6,800 educators are in the course, according to an MDE��.

MDE declined to provide a specific estimate of how much it would cost the state if LETRS training becomes mandatory. “The vendor chosen to provide those services will have to provide competitive pricing based upon the much larger number of teachers that would be trained compared to the number of teachers currently being trained under voluntary LETRS training,” MDE said in a statement.

Trying to turn a massive ship��

Teacher training is one aspect of Michigan efforts to improve student literacy. There are��a, funding for literacy coaches to help teachers improve skills and new requirements for school districts in the coming years.

LETRS is “not a quick fix,” Tilley, the state board member said, and is only one factor in getting the state to improve its literacy scores. Tilley cited����as another factor in student performance.

LETRS is not the only option available to teachers. Some districts are choosing programs offered by the��, the����and individual curriculum companies.

Curriculum companies offer teacher training on their specific curriculum, while LETRS is not tied to a specific reading curriculum, often referred to as program agnostic, a��.

“The difference is I can take my learning from LETRS and I can apply it to the literacy curriculum that my district is using,”��Rawls-Smith, the state official,��. “I’ll learn about the brain and how the brain reads. I’ll learn about why children have a difficulty creating those roadmaps in their brain.”

Heidi Winkler, a first grade teacher at Allendale Public Schools, said the district provided teachers with time during the school day to take the training or funds to take the training in the evening. She said she would support requiring the training but teachers should be compensated for their time.

“I feel like this was better than some professional development that you might sit through sometimes that you don’t know when you’re going to be able to use it.”

In a��, the Edunomics Lab, a research center out of Georgetown University, cautioned that school districts should be judicious with professional development.

“One place to start is by being clear about the student outcomes leaders hope to see from PD — and honest when it doesn’t deliver. A high-cost investment can be worth it if outcomes are growing. But if outcomes are stagnant, it may be��.”

by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.