News Story

Educator behind embattled reading theory to keynote Troy School District conference

Parents blame ‘units of study’ program for their children’s reading woes

Lucy Calkins, the education professor whose work was disowned by Columbia Teachers College earlier this year, is set to appear as a keynote speaker at a Troy School District conference this weekend, called the Midwest Literacy Coaching Mini-Institute.

Some parents in the Southeast Michigan community say their school district needs to update its curriculum to embrace phonics, the reading method Calkins’ teaching program is widely accused of having downplayed.

Calkins estimated that one-fourth of the nation’s elementary schools use her approach, called “units of study,” according to a May 21, 2022, account in The New York Times. But her work has also faced criticism from those who favor the Science of Reading method, known as phonics. The newspaper said Calkins had made “a major retreat, adding that she has started to include phonics in her curriculum.

In September 2023, Columbia announced that the Teachers College would end its relationship with the project that has housed Calkins’ work. The New York Times summarized the change this way: “Amid Reading Wars, Teachers College Will Close a Star Professor’s Shop.”

The change could not come soon enough for Michele Maleszyk, a former teacher and parent of a first grader in the Troy district.

Maleszyk says she has asked officials to change their reading curriculum, but they have not. She said she emailed the news from Columbia to the district’s school board and Richard M. Machesky, superintendent of the school district. Those requests have gone unheeded.

“We do not choose curriculum based on individuals, university base, vendors, or other non-research-based factors,” Machesky wrote in response to the parent. “We rely upon many highly trained and well-educated individuals in our Teaching and Learning Department to help monitor student progress, provide professional learning and support for staff. These are the individuals that are also best suited to determine what is science-based research and what is not.”

Maleszyk and other parents have spent money on personal tutors to overcome the troubles their children have had in reading, which she blames on the curriculum.

“Critics of (Calkins’) ideas, including some cognitive scientists and instructional experts, said her curriculum bypassed decades of settled research, often referred to as the science of reading,” the Times reported on Sept. 8. “That body of research suggests that direct, carefully sequenced instruction in phonics, vocabulary-building and comprehension [are] more effective for young readers than Dr. Calkins’ looser approach.”

Students in the Troy district have not performed well under that approach.

More than 85% of third grade students scored proficient or higher on the state’s standardized reading test in the 2012-13 school year, before the district adopted its current reading curriculum in fall 2014. The comparable proficiency rate fell to 74% in 2018-19, according to MI School Data.

The percentage of third-grade students who were proficient or advanced in reading dropped again, to 69%, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021-22. Last year, 66% were proficient or advanced in reading.

Despite the changes at Columbia, the Troy School District is scheduled to host Calkins as a keynote speaker at an upcoming conference. Calkins announced her appearance on her website. The event is scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday and will cost participants $360 for the three-day event.

The school district did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Prior to recall, Green Township board violated campaign finance law

Signs that attacked critics failed to name the source of their funding, as required by law

The board of trustees of Mecosta County’s Green Charter Township is a completely different group from the one that started the year. Before the old board was swept out in a flurry of resignations and recalls, the Michigan Secretary of State found that trustees violated campaign finance law.

The penalty of the June 30 ruling was a formal warning for failure to identify political advocacy as such. This is the “paid for by” portion usually found in political ads. The signs did not contain one.

“Because the materials explicitly advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate, or for the passage or defeat of a ballot proposal, the materials contain express advocacy as defined by the Act,” reads a portion of the June 30 letter from the Michigan Secretary of State.

“As explained above, such materials must contain a ‘paid for by’ statement. However, the evidence shows that the materials at issue here omit part or all of that required statement. That absence supports the conclusion that a potential violation of the (Michigan Campaign Finance Act) has occurred,” the letter reads.

The violation could carry a potential 93-day jail sentence and a $1,000 fine. But the Bureau of Elections instead issued a formal warning to the board and a reminder to properly identify who paid for the political activity.

Note that all printed materials referencing you or your candidacy produced in the future must include this identification statement,” the letter said, with the text underlined.

Read the complaint for yourself here

After the Green Township board’s 7-0 vote last December in favor of the Gotion EV battery project, trustees faced public backlash.

In an effort to defend themselves, trustees pushed back. They placed at least one sign appeared in the township, with the trustees’ names and years of service on the left side — 267 years, all told — and their critics’ names and years of service — all zeroes — on the right.

“Don’t sign their petition,” the sign read.

That part of the complaint, the unauthorized use of names in a political ad, was not a violation, the state said.

The complaint was filed by Lori Sue Brock, records show. She was one of the critics named on the sign.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.