Michigan Approves the Every Child Ready Curriculum for Use in the PreK Great Start Readiness Program

LANSING, Mich., July 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan's Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) has announced that Collaborative Classroom's Every Child Ready curriculum is approved for use in the Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan's free PreK program for eligible four-year-olds, and the state's Great Start to Quality program.

"Michigan is a leader in early childhood education," said Kelly Stuart, president and CEO of Collaborative Classroom. "We're thrilled that MiLEAP has approved the Every Child Ready curriculum, determining that it meets the rigorous standards of GSRP, the nation's No. 1-ranked PreK program. The approval of Every Child Ready will empower Michigan's early childhood educators with the resources to nurture their youngest learners and put them on the path to success in school and beyond."

About the Every Child Ready Curriculum

Every Child Ready is a comprehensive curriculum for preschool and PreK classrooms that blends purposeful play, individualized instruction, embedded professional learning, and family engagement. Available in English and Spanish and designed to be flexible and customizable, Every Child Ready gives educators everything they need to launch, teach, and measure success—so every child enters kindergarten prepared to thrive.

A proven early childhood solution, Every Child Ready dramatically improves early learning outcomes for children, benefits educator practice, and enhances the classroom learning environment:

• In classrooms implementing Every Child Ready, 89 percent of children are kindergarten-ready—nearly double the national average (47 percent).
• Ninety percent of educators felt more confident in their practice after completing Every Child Ready curriculum training.
• Every Child Ready educators demonstrate significantly higher performance in the CLASS Instructional Support domain compared to educators in non-ECR classrooms.

Every Child Ready Joins Other Collaborative Classroom Curricula Approved for Use in Michigan Schools

In 2025, the Michigan Department of Education's Committee for Literacy Achievement (CLA) vetted and approved Collaborative Classroom's K–5 comprehensive literacy curriculum, Collaborative Literacy (Being a Reader™, Being a Writer™), as part of its evaluation of Tier 1 literacy curriculum materials. Collaborative Literacy successfully met the criteria set forth by the CLA and therefore qualifies for Section 35m funding.

"It is important to note that the prekindergarten Every Child Ready curriculum and the K–5 Collaborative Literacy curriculum are instructionally aligned," says Jeremy Hyler, the Collaborative Classroom Senior Manager of Educational Partnerships in Michigan. "This instructional alignment means that Michigan children who encounter Every Child Ready in PreK followed by Collaborative Literacy in elementary school will benefit from an exceptionally coherent and seamless instructional path from PreK all the way through fifth grade."

Learn about approved Collaborative Classroom curricula in Michigan: https://www.collaborativeclassroom.org/michigan/

About Collaborative Classroom

Collaborative Classroom is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization committed to ensuring that all students become readers, writers, and thinkers who learn from, care for, and respect one another.

As one of the few nonprofit organizations in the country that develop, disseminate, and implement curriculum at scale, Collaborative Classroom is dedicated to putting students, educators, and research at the center of every decision and providing personalized, cutting-edge implementation support for the schools and students it serves.

The organization's evidence-based programs and innovative professional learning are used by educators in all 50 states in more than a thousand school districts. Collaborative Classroom's portfolio of solutions spans preschool and prekindergarten through grade 8, with some curricula extending through grades 9–12.

Since the organization's founding, Collaborative Classroom's work has reached more than 10 million students and 440,000 educators across the country, developing fluent readers and skilled writers, supporting instructional equity, transforming discipline practices, and bolstering student and teacher engagement.

Learn more about Collaborative Classroom at collaborativeclassroom.org.

SOURCE Collaborative Classroom