East Lansing takes on Michigan’s early literacy slump
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A long line of people waits inside the Hannah Community Center, reaching almost all the way to the front doors. Parents with baby carriers and strollers stand chatting with each other. Children scamper up and down the hallways. The crowd has gathered for an unlikely reason: to celebrate early literacy. Early literacy is lagging in Michigan, where overall reading levels have been in decline since 2003 and only 44 percent of third-graders are proficient readers, according to 2016-2017 state assessment data from the State of Michigan Education Report.