Education, Law & Principles

School-produced illiteracy crisis gets Oklahoma lawmakers’ attention

November 10, 2025

Jonathan Small

According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, only 23 percent of Oklahoma fourth-grade students were proficient or advanced in reading in 2024.

That’s one of the worst rates in the nation.

Fortunately, members of the Oklahoma House Common Education Committee recently focused on our state’s reading challenges and considered a plan of action.

“What we’ve learned from other states is that, in essence, widespread illiteracy is a policy choice,” said state Rep. Rob Hall, R-Tulsa.

Experts told lawmakers they must re-adopt policies previously implemented between 2011 and 2014. Mississippi, which adopted similar policies and stuck to them, has risen from the bottom of national rankings to the top 10 in reading outcomes.

Those policies include a strong third-grade reading law that requires early intervention for struggling readers, with the poorest performers required to repeat third grade.

When those policies were previously adopted in Oklahoma from roughly 2011 to 2014, the state experienced enormous gains in literacy outcomes. By 2015, Oklahoma’s NAEP score on fourth-grade reading surged to 222, which was above the national average.

But outcomes plunged after the retention law was largely gutted. By 2024, the average reading NAEP score of fourth-grade students in Oklahoma had fallen to 207, which was not only below the national average but also indicated that Oklahoma students were now roughly 1.5 years behind their 2014 peers.

Mary Dahlgren, a literacy consultant and former classroom teacher, stressed the importance of also funding reading coaches to work with teachers and schools across the state to implement effective reading instruction. 

Dahlgren also urged lawmakers to base public-school instruction on the science of reading, which incorporates many practices and strategies proven to work, including phonetic instruction.

Critics have long argued that retention is more devastating to children than being socially promoted despite a lack of reading skills. 

But Casey Sullivan Taylor, senior policy director with ExcelinEd, noted that has not been the case in Mississippi. In the 2014-2015 school year, 8.1 percent of third-grade students in Mississippi had to repeat third grade. Research has shown that, by the sixth grade, students who were retained outperformed their peers who barely passed the test and were promoted to fourth grade.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, is among those committed to improving Oklahoma’s literacy outcomes, noting the issue is at the root of many labor shortages.

“If our kids can’t read, then they’re not going to be doctors. They’re not going to be attorneys. They’re not going to be physicians,” Hilbert said. “They’re not going to be engineers.” 

Hilbert is right. Literacy skills not only improve the life trajectory of children but also ensure a better Oklahoma for everyone.