Capitol News

The Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC), in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Education and the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI), has released a new report on Michigan's Read by Grade Three law. This study examines the implementation and outcomes of the policy over four years, focusing on retention and exemption decisions for students who scored 1252 or below on the end-of-year state test in English language arts (ELA) from 2020 to 2023.

In 2023, 8% of retention-eligible students repeated third grade, while 92% received exemptions from their districts. Despite more than 5,000 students scoring below the cutoff on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) in ELA, only about 400 were retained, representing approximately 0.5% of all third graders who took the test.

Districts held back around 7% of retention-eligible third graders in 2021, increasing to 10% in 2022 before decreasing to 8% in 2023. Over these years, districts promoted no less than 90% of eligible students through "good cause exemptions." Most exemptions were due to parent requests, though other types such as those for English learners became more frequent over time.

"Far too many of our children struggle with reading without structured ways in their schools for educators to determine and address their literacy challenges," said State Superintendent Michael Rice. "We can do better as a state. We need to screen our early elementary students for characteristics of dyslexia and identify other students who struggle to read so we can provide them with interventions to help them become solid readers. We need to pass the dyslexia legislation this term."

The report highlights that more than 95% of retained students are economically disadvantaged and over 80% are students of color. Disparities in retention outcomes across subgroups increased during the three years when the policy was active. Economically disadvantaged students were more likely to be retained even after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status and other characteristics.

In terms of racial disparities, although only about 19% of Michigan’s third graders were students of color in 2023, they represented a significant portion—66%—of those eligible for retention and accounted for 82% of those actually retained that year. However, when considering similar conditions such as school attendance rates and M-STEP scores among peers at the same school, racial disparities diminished.

"Even though the retention component of the Read by Grade Three law is no longer in place, there are still a lot of students throughout Michigan who are struggling with reading," stated Tara Kilbride, EPIC’s assistant director for research and author of the report. "It will be important to continue monitoring students’ literacy development and providing support to those who need it as early as possible."

The report also found differences between charter schools and traditional public schools regarding views on retention policies. Charter schools retained about 17% of their eligible students compared to only about 5% at traditional public schools in 2023. Consequently, charter school students made up a disproportionate share—51%—of all retained pupils despite constituting only about12 %of third-grade enrollment that year.

Charter school educators were generally more supportive than their counterparts at traditional public schools regarding retention as an effective tool for improving student achievement. Survey responses indicated that charter schools tended to differentiate more between literacy interventions provided based on student needs.