WAYNE-WESTLAND, Mich. – In Michigan, third-grade students are struggling with literacy, which is concerning since this grade is considered a critical year for students. Why?

It can determine just how well they do for the rest of their academic lives. According to the Michigan Department of Education, results show scores dropped in recent years among this group.

 

THIRD-GRADE STUDENTS SCORED PROFICIENCY OR ABOVE

2023-2024 39.6%

2022-2023 40.9%

2021-2022 41.6%

2020-2021 42.8%

2019-2020 N/A

2018-2019 45.1%

 

So, what’s being done to help them overcome challenges? At Wayne-Westland Community Schools, it’s finding success stories in helping students soar in reading.

Nowadays, Penelope Coyle’s reading matches her confidence, however her mother Lauren Coyle told Local 4 this wasn’t always the case.

“She had a hard time sounding out the words,” Lauren Coyle said.

The 8-year-old is in third grade. Yet, her struggle began the year before, leading to her teacher bringing in reinforcement.

Janella Schaefer is a literacy coach.

“We’re noticing that some students are missing little bits of knowledge here and there,” Schaefer said.

The literacy coach works with teachers–not students–to help strategize reading goals at Edison Elementary School.

“We’re noticing in third grade that our students, maybe those little gaps in their learning are a little bit more filled in than our fourth and fifth-grade students,” Schaefer said.

At the onset of the pandemic, fourth and fifth-grade students were around kindergarten and first grade.

As was the story of Lauren Coyle’s oldest daughter, Stella.

“It was hard for her because with COVID, she only went to school part of the time, so she wasn’t getting, like, the full experience at being at school,” said the mother.

Experts say we’re seeing the effects of the pandemic learning loss playing in real-time.

Read the full article on Click on Detroit.