Michigan Makes Early Childhood Literacy a Priority–for ALL Children

by Jacquelyn J. Thompson, Director, Office of Special Education and Early Intervention Services, Michigan Department of Education

I will learn to read! Sam is so excited as he heads to his first day of kindergarten. After two years of preschool and five and a half years of hearing his grandmother and mom reading his favorite stories and teaching him to say silly rhymes, he is anxious and ready to read on his own. He already reads a few words like STOP signs and labels on his favorite cereal boxes, and he can print his name. Sam is confident, eager, and “ready to learn.”

Early intervention for children at
risk for academic failure works.

Maria is excited about kindergarten, too. She has always wanted to ride the big yellow bus she sees going past her day care provider’s house. Maria speaks Spanish at home and loves looking at pictures in books and playing pretend with the other children—in both her native language and in her limited English. While she doesn’t recognize any written words and has trouble recognizing her own name, she too is eager to go to school and is “ready to learn.”

Andy is looking forward to kindergarten as well. He has attended preschool since he was two years old. Physically challenged since birth, Andy will have several accommodations in his kindergarten classroom. His early intervention services through Early On® and special education preschool services have assured his developmental progress and his success as a learner. Andy loves school, and he too is “ready to learn.”

Sam, Maria, and Andy are just three of thousands of young children excited to start kindergarten every year in Michigan. Each child comes “ready to learn” in her/his unique way, and every school is expected to be “ready to teach” each of them.

Today’s Students and Teachers Face New Literacy Demands

Becoming literate is one of the primary outcomes expected for each child in Michigan schools. Michigan’s Curriculum Framework says that literate citizens will be able to “communicate skillfully and effectively through printed, visual, auditory, and technological media in the home, school, community, and workplace.” Today’s students need to use language to think creatively, solve problems, compare and evaluate information, and read to learn throughout their lives.

Schools are challenged to help each child achieve these important skills. Research shows that about 30-40 percent of children will learn to read well with very little effort. Another 30-40 percent will do well with appropriate and specific reading instruction that matches their needs. Some will need highly specialized instruction. ALL are expected to learn and achieve.

New Knowledge and Tools Are Available

Research documents that early intervention for children at risk for academic failure works. Quality early childhood programs, early identification of special needs, and rigorous attention to each child’s progress in the components of
literacy are proven factors.

Every day counts and every day, teachers in Michigan are gaining skills and knowledge—based on research—to improve instruction for each child.

An important starting point for early intervention in school is a problem-solving model. This model brings together classroom teachers and other school professionals to collaboratively address the problems faced by students who struggle in school with existing instructional models. Instead of asking, “What’s the problem with this learner?” teams ask, “Where does our instruction fail to match what the learner needs?”

Problem-solving models vary in name and origin, but all have a common goal of improved student achievement. Michigan’s Integrated Behavior and Learning Support Initiative (MiBLSi) is a collaborative effort coordinated by Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), Ottawa Area Intermediate School District (ISD), and Macomb ISD that focuses both on literacy and behavior. MiBLSi bases its approach on research from the University of Oregon and other places and uses a problem-solving model to look at the interface between academic success and student behavior. Dr. Margaret McGlinchy, Co-Director for the literacy component of MiBLSi, has been successfully leading this approach in Kalamazoo for several years.

“The goal of MiBLSi is to support regional teams that will build the capacity of local elementary schools to implement and sustain schoolwide Positive Behavior Support and research-based reading intervention,” says McGlinchy.

The first round of the grant supports eight regional teams from all over Michigan; each of these teams works with three elementary schools. McGlinchy reports the research-based reading intervention and data collection processes in MiBLSi are consistent with other special education and literacy initiatives such as Reading First (see page 9), and MiBLSi teams will collaborate with similar initiatives when possible.

“Learning to collect and use data to make decisions has been a very exciting collaborative process, and I expect that to continue as we implement MiBLSI,” says McGlinchy.

The Instructional Consultation (IC) Team is another problem-solving model currently piloted by ten Michigan schools. Schools receive training and technical support for developing, implementing, and evaluating consultation teams in elementary and middle schools (see Michigan Schools Form Instructional Consultation Teams, to left). The training and support is based on research at the University of Maryland with technical assistance provided in partnership with the Lab for IC Teams.

For the past six years, Northville Public Schools has been using a similar process with encouraging results. Test scores are rising and more students are succeeding as readers. In addition, fewer students are being referred to special education due to reading failure. In fact, Northville’s December student count showed the rate of students identified for special education dropped below 6 percent overall (Michigan’s rate statewide is approximately 14 percent). Northville’s model avoids the wait-to-fail approach to intervention and remediation.

“Our experience teaches us that Instructional Consultation helps us improve collegial problem-solving between support staff and regular classroom staff,” says Bob Sornson, Northville’s Executive Director for Special Education. “IC also becomes a powerful form of professional development in each building to help teachers develop instructional methods to help struggling students.”

In Huron County, a team of general and special educators is leading a broad initiative to improve early intervention for literacy. Using the team problem-solving model and well-defined reading instruction, both general and special education teachers are using approaches that lead to success for their students. The Huron ISD has been piloting the Realigning Assessment and Instructional Support for Education (RAISE) system for several years. “RAISE provides the framework we’ve needed to make good, ongoing decisions based on data,” says Janet Richards, Director of Special Education at Huron ISD. “The data tells us where we’re at, where we want to go, and how we need to get there. We’ve tried a lot of good programs in general and special education. This process is the glue that holds all those previous efforts together, so we make good decisions for students.”

Great Starts Lead to Great Finishes

Developmental science tells us that young children begin building pre-reading skills from the moment they are born. Before they ever enter school, their brains acquire a tremendous amount of information about language and about the world around them. With every language interaction—with every story, song, rhyme, and conversation—and through play with adults and peers, children are developing the groundwork for literacy.

Children come to school with varied experiences and a range of language sophistication. Michigan educators must embrace the challenge to be ready to teach ALL children. Michigan’s very visible emphasis is to provide a great start for every child, and we are doing this by acknowledging the importance of the early childhood years, promoting literacy, and applying research-based strategies for instruction, and expecting to see continuous improvement in results for ALL children.

Collaboration Is Key

Throughout Michigan, legislators, business and community leaders, parents, and educators are working together to ensure that every Michigan child has the kind of language experiences and learning opportunities that will lead to literacy success. General and special educators are working together to improve results for ALL children, so that each child can achieve and realize her/his potential.

Addressing early childhood literacy is a job we cannot ignore. It is a job we can do. We have the research, we have the tools, and we have the leaders. Together, we will provide each and every child the opportunity to succeed.

For more information, contact: Margaret McGlinchy, Ph.D., MiBLSi Co-Director, Kalamazoo RESA, 1819 E. Milham Rd., Kalamazoo, MI 49002-3035, (269) 385-1581, (269) 381-3523 fax, mmcglinc@kresanet.org; Janet Richards, Director, Special Student Services, Huron ISD, 711 E. Sopher Rd., Bad Axe, MI 48413, (989) 269-9216, (989) 269-9218 fax, janet@hisd.k12.mi.us; Bob Sornson, Executive Director, Special Education, 501 N. Main St., Northville, MI 48167-1582, (248) 349-3400, (248) 347-6928 fax, www.northville.k12.mi.us; or Jacquelyn J. Thompson, Michigan Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Early Intervention Services, (517) 373-9433, ThompsonJJ@michigan.gov.

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