Across Michigan, literacy instruction is undergoing a shift. Public Act 146 (PA-146), the K-12 Literacy and Dyslexia Law, has educators, instructional coaches, and district leaders asking a practical question: what does this mean for daily classroom instruction?

As districts move toward full implementation of the law by the 2027-28 school year, the answer lies in aligning state policy, research-based practice, and professional learning. The Literacy Leaders and Coaches Network (LLCN) continues to serve as a regional platform to help educators navigate these shifts and translate statewide mandates into sustainable classroom realities. This year, every LLCN Presents course was chosen based on what local K-12 teachers, coaches, and administrators shared in our needs assessment survey.

What PA-146 Requires

PA-146 establishes expectations aimed at improving reading outcomes for all K-12 learners:

• Universal Screening: Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, districts must conduct universal screening three times per year for K-3 students using Michigan Department of Education (MDE)-approved tools to identify risk factors early. Screening requirements also extend to students in grades 4-12 who show reading and writing difficulties.
• Structured Literacy and Evidence-Based Intervention: Districts must ensure that Tier 1 classroom instruction and interventions are grounded in the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy principles. This includes explicit instruction in phonology, sound-symbol association, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics.
• Professional Learning Assurances: By the 2027-28 school year, districts must provide MDE with assurance that literacy coaches, educators, and staff who provide reading instruction or interventions have received professional development on the characteristics of dyslexia, structured literacy strategies, and the alignment of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).

To learn more, visit MDE’s K-12 Literacy and Dyslexia Law webpage.

From Policy to Practice: Advanced Word Study

What does PA-146 look like in the classroom? On October 6, LLCN Presents kicked off this year’s series with Advanced Word Study for grades 3-12. Educators from six districts, including teachers, instructional coaches, literacy coaches, interventionists, and a curriculum director, explored systematic ways to teach prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Together, they practiced routines that help students break down and read multisyllabic words independently.

This work connects directly to the law’s emphasis on explicit instruction in morphology. As one participant reflected, the session showed “how morphology bridges word recognition and language comprehension.” Others left ready to apply their learning right away, with one educator sharing, “I have specific ideas I can use in my small groups.”

Participants also expressed interest in exploring direct connections between this learning, the K-12 Literacy and Dyslexia Law, and secondary instruction. The full LLCN Presents series addresses these connections across seven instructional domains.

Aligning LLCN Focus Areas with PA-146 and the Science of Reading

Each LLCN Presents course corresponds to core components of PA-146, the Science of Reading, and the Structured Literacy framework.

Structured Literacy and Foundational Skills

• Advanced Word Study: Explores morphology, etymology, and syntax to strengthen explicit instruction in decoding and word recognition.
• Fluency: Bridges the gap between decoding and automaticity, supporting deeper comprehension.

Evidence-Based Instruction Across the Content Areas

• Small Group Instruction: Structures targeted, evidence-based small-group routines to support Tier 1 instruction.
• Academic Vocabulary: Explicitly teaches Tier 2 (general academic) and Tier 3 (domain-specific) vocabulary words to strengthen comprehension across content areas.
• Student Discourse: Cultivates language-rich classrooms where academic dialogue increases students’ engagement with texts.
• Inquiry-Based Learning with Disciplinary Literacy: Teaches students to read, write, and think like historians, scientists, and mathematicians.

Explicit Writing Instruction

• Writing: Integrates explicit writing instruction to strengthen students’ written expression.

Moving Forward Together

As districts prepare for the 2027-28 implementation deadlines and work to strengthen instructional systems, collaborative professional networks play an important role in sharing research, resources, and implementation strategies. LLCN Presents offers a space to deepen the knowledge and practices PA-146 emphasizes while learning alongside colleagues from across the region.

We invite school teams, teachers, literacy coaches, and district leaders to utilize the upcoming LLCN Presents sessions to align instructional practices with PA-146 and continue building strong literacy foundations for all learners. Our next sessions include Building Fluency in Reading, co-presented by Statia Davey, who leads Kent ISD’s dyslexia and PA-146 support work:

November 10 (half-day sessions; attend both and save $5)

• Building Fluency in Reading (8:30 to 11:30 a.m.): Best for K-8 literacy leaders and educators. Design instruction that strengthens accuracy, rate, and prosody to boost reading comprehension.
• Student Discourse (12:30 to 3:30 p.m.): Best for K-12 literacy leaders and educators. Establish discourse norms and learn teacher and student moves that foster productive, content-area discussion.

December 1 (full day)

• Writing (8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.): Best for K-12 literacy leaders and educators. Strengthen students’ written expression with sentence-level instruction and The Writing Rope, aligned with Science of Reading research-based practices.

Explore all of the LLCN Presents courses and register

This blog post was written by Sonali Deshpande, Early Literacy Coach, and edited by Statia Davey, Early Literacy Coach, and Amanda Walma, T&L Marketing and Communications Specialist, all of Kent ISD.