LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – Third-grade reading scores in Michigan have been declining for several years. This year, they hit a record low.
About 60% of Michigan’s third-graders are not reading proficiently, according to the 2024 Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (MSTEP) results. Anne Kuhnen of the Michigan League for Public Policy says this is an ongoing trend that shows the need for greater investment in Michigan’s schools.
“Reading performance has been declining for over a decade. Spending on our schools is not keeping pace with inflation and the costs of other sectors of the economy,” Kuhnen said.
Looking at the last few years of MSTEP, you can see an annual trend. From 2021 to 2024, the figure is around 39%. This is the lowest figure since the test was introduced.
Nathan Leale, assistant superintendent of Eaton RESA, says the district will review the findings and work to identify challenges and opportunities to support its students.
“Once we know who these students are and take into account socioeconomic aspects, cultural backgrounds and the like, I think we can make greater progress,” Leale said.
Michigan has invested in comprehensive supports, such as universal preschool, free meals for all and 35A literacy funds. But there’s still a lot of work to be done, says Tara Kilbride of Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC). That could start with parents. Understanding some of the barriers could influence their involvement.
“Educators found parental involvement challenging in many cases and felt it hindered their efforts to promote students’ early literacy skills,” Kilbride said.
“When we involve parents, we usually get better results,” Leale said. Moving forward, it takes a collaborative effort to achieve better outcomes.
Experts say the results show why school funding is important. This year, state lawmakers did not include an increase in per capita funding, the first time since the 2020-21 school year. Funding for mental health and safety was also cut sharply.
“We are encouraged to see continued, incremental improvement in achievement levels measured on most M-STEP and SAT/PSAT tests, particularly on the M-STEP math tests. These results reflect the hard work of students and teachers, as well as investments in education by the Governor and Legislature. Yet there remains much work to be done, both educationally and financially, to provide students with the supports they need. Poverty has consistently had a significant and negative impact on student academic achievement. This year’s results also show that the average remote learning experience during the 2020-21 school year rather than in-person instruction during the pandemic has hindered progress. The fact that children were in the window of learning to read—preschool or early elementary grades—at the time COVID-19 hit also impacted assessment scores, on average. Poverty, distance learning during the 2020-21 school year, and being in the learning-to-read window at the start of the pandemic are complex challenges that some of our children continue to struggle with.”
“MDE remains committed to LETRS literacy training so that all elementary teachers are informed about this profound science of professional development in literacy,”
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