On October 10, 2024, Governor Whitmer signed Public Act 147 of 2024 into law. This law requires all teacher preparation programs to instruct future teachers on recognizing signs of dyslexia and other reading difficulties. It also requires them to learn how to adjust their teaching methods to help students with these challenges.
In addition, all programs that prepare teachers for elementary and secondary English Language Arts (ELA), Reading, Special Education, Reading Specialist, and School Psychologist roles must train candidates to use teaching methods that are backed by research. These methods must be based on the science of reading and structured literacy. The goal is to help all students—especially those with signs of dyslexia or those who struggle to learn how to read words correctly and quickly.
In 2016, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) began work to improve how teachers are prepared to teach reading. This work began in the Office of Educator Excellence (OEE) and was the first action of a larger effort to redesign Michigan’s teacher certification system.
The 2015 Third-Grade Reading Workgroup Report to Governor Rick Snyder recommended several systemic improvements to better prepare new teachers to teach reading. MDE began addressing these recommendations by convening educators and researchers with expertise in literacy to review and update the standards for elementary teacher preparation. These new standards were informed by the Literacy Essentials, which are based on research into reading science. In 2018, the State Board of Education approved new literacy preparation standards for grades PK–3 and 3–6. These standards were stronger and more focused than ever before. They include preparation for teachers to recognize problems with how students process sounds in words (called phonological processing) and how to support students who struggle. The standards for these grade bands, as well as new standards for a stand-alone early childhood (birth-Kindergarten) grade band, complement each other in a continuum of literacy teacher preparation grounded in reading science. Teachers learn how children’s skills in speaking, reading, and writing progress in learners, as well as the research-based instructional practices that support healthy literacy development.
Between 2018 and 2021, Michigan’s approved teacher preparation institutions and alternative routes redesigned their elementary teacher preparation programs to address these standards. In 2022, new Michigan Tests for Teacher Certification for the PK-3 and 3-6 grade bands debuted, featuring stand-alone subtests in Literacy aligned to the new teacher preparation standards. These subtests provide a strong quality assurance of new teacher’s preparation to deliver effective literacy instruction.
Building on these foundations of early literacy, preparation standards in disciplinary literacy for all teachers in the middle grades (5-9) and high school (7-12) grade bands were developed and approved by the SBE in 2024. Aligned to the Literacy Essentials for adolescent learners, these standards have continuity with literacy teacher preparation standards for the PK-3 and 3-6 grade bands. Michigan’s approved teacher preparation institutions and alternative routes redesigned their secondary teacher preparation programs to address these standards in 2024 and 2025, supported by an Institution of Higher Education PK-12 Literacy Preparation Collaborative (IHE Collaborative). Composed of representatives from educator preparation providers charged with implementation of literacy teacher preparation coursework, the IHE Collaborative meets monthly to support implementation of literacy teacher preparation standards across all grade bands, collective understanding of the components of Public Act 147, and intersections between preparation standards and the specific requirements of the K-12 Literacy and Dyslexia Laws. OEE literacy consultants lead the IHE Collaborative and collaborate with national peers and dyslexia researchers to maximize guidance provided to educator preparation providers for transforming literacy teacher preparation in Michigan.
