Lansing students gained ground in reading this year while Michigan third-graders fell to their worst scores in the 12-year history of the state exam.

Only 38.2% of Michigan third-graders scored proficient in English language arts on the spring 2026 M-STEP, down from 38.9% the year before, Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan reported. The Michigan Department of Education released the results Friday, Sept. 4.

Lansing School District bucked that slide. In grades 3 through 7, 19.4% of Lansing students scored proficient in reading and writing, a 5.8-percentage-point increase over four years, according to WLNS. The state dropped 0.9 percentage points in the same window.

That 19.4% rate is still slightly below the district's 19.7% proficiency in 2019, the last pre-pandemic test year. Lansing's scores also trail the statewide average by a wide margin. The district posted gains in third through sixth grades but saw declines in seventh and eighth, according to Chalkbeat.

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko, in his first year leading the department after a decade at Dearborn Public Schools, said Friday that the state needs "to make improvements to help our students achieve at higher levels." Deputy Superintendent Delsa Chapman called literacy the department's top priority.

The scores land two months before the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election. Both candidates seized on them.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee, called the results deeply troubling in a Sept. 4 statement reported by Chalkbeat. She blamed decades of Republican school-funding cuts and released an agenda over the summer listing literacy as her No. 1 priority, with targets for chronic absenteeism, career and college readiness and teacher support. In an interview with WDIV-TV, Benson pointed to professional development for teachers as a strategy that worked in Mississippi and Maryland.

U.S. Rep. John James, the Republican nominee, said in a Sept. 4 statement that the scores show children are being left behind by a failing system. He called education "the civil rights issue of our time" and said Jocelyn Benson and Lansing Democrats have failed students, teachers and families, according to Chalkbeat. James said he would opt Michigan into the Trump administration's federal tax-credit scholarship program for private-school vouchers, expand phonics instruction, reward high-performing teachers and push a constitutional amendment giving the governor power to appoint and remove the state superintendent.

Michigan ranked 32nd of 35 states with usable data for reading growth between 2022 and 2025, according to the Education Scorecard, a Harvard-Stanford research collaboration. The state ranked 44th the year before.

New state laws require districts to use evidence-based reading instruction and screen students for dyslexia by the 2027-2028 school year. Elementary teachers must complete science-of-reading training by 2031-2032. Maleyko told Chalkbeat those laws are not fully in effect yet and called for collaboration among the Legislature, governor, State Board of Education and educators.

Closer to home, results varied. Jackson Public Schools dropped 4.8 percentage points in grades 3-7 reading proficiency over the past year, falling to 20.7%. Haslett Public Schools gained 3.5 percentage points, and Stockbridge Community Schools rose 5.5 percentage points.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited. The spring 2026 M-STEP results are the last state test scores to be released before she leaves office.