Vital early reading skills deserve critical policy focus

Michael Lombardo is the CEO of Reading Partners. A Michigan native, he is also a social-entrepreneur-in-residence at Stanford University and serves on the advisory council of the My Brother's Keeper Alliance.

 

As Michigan lawmakers begin negotiating the state budget next week, it’s critical they focus on funding investments that will carry the state into the future. It starts with ensuring that Michigan students have the basic reading skills they need to succeed.

In his State of the State address this year, Governor Snyder called on Michigan to rise to the challenge of the early literacy crisis facing the state. Fewer than one-third (31 percent) of fourth graders in public schools test at their grade level in reading. That number falls to just 19 percent for students from low-income households. Sadly, a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation lists Michigan as one of only six states in the country where fourth-grade reading skill levels have not improved over the past decade.

We must invest in literacy. Reading is the foundation for success – not just in school but in life. Countless studies have underscored this. Kids who read at their grade level by fourth grade are far more likely to stay in school, to avoid high risk behaviors, and to go on to college.

The good news is, we know how to fix this problem. There are numerous proven solutions that have been shown by rigorous third-party studies to significantly improve reading achievement for kids. These include tutoring programs, summer school and high quality pre-K.

The Michigan State Senate heeded the governor's call to action and has moved forward a bill reflecting the best practices in helping improve reading scores for students. Included in this package is an additional $30 million in statewide funding to implement proven solutions that get real results for kids.

The legislature wisely backed away from a bill that would have forced third graders across the state to be held back based on a single high-stakes standardized test. This “read or flunk” approach has been tried in other states, however research studies from Harvard University and the University of Arkansas, among others, have been unable to demonstrate any long-term benefit to kids. In fact, Florida, the state whose legislation the bill was modeled on, recently suspended the practice.

This will be a tough budget year in Michigan and lawmakers will be forced to make difficult choices. Early reading is a solvable problem and the plan put forward by the Governor and Senate would put the state on a path to significant improvements in achievement.

Literacy is the foundation for thriving public schools and economic prosperity. We owe it both to our kids and to ourselves to make sure we prioritize this as a critical investment in Michigan's future.