Education

Literacy improvement a major focus of Oklahoma leaders

January 16, 2026

Ray Carter

Efforts to improve Oklahoma’s bottom-of-the-barrel results in K-12 reading will be a major focus of this year’s legislative session, with the Speaker of the House and several other lawmakers leading the charge.

Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, has filed legislation to strengthen Oklahoma’s Strong Readers Act, reinforcing the state’s commitment to ensuring every child can read at or above grade level by the end of third grade.

“Reading is not optional, it is foundational,” Hilbert said. “If a child cannot read, they will struggle in every subject that follows. This bill puts students first by focusing on what works, holding the system accountable, and giving parents clear information about their child’s progress.”

House Bill 4420 builds on Oklahoma’s early literacy efforts by requiring the use of proven, science-based reading instruction and eliminating ineffective methods. It strengthens early screening for reading deficiencies, ensures timely intervention, and increases transparency for parents when a child is falling behind.

Key provisions of the bill emphasize:

• Early identification of reading deficiencies through consistent, statewide screening;
• Targeted, intensive intervention grounded in the science of reading;
• Clear communication with parents about their child’s reading progress and available supports;
• Accountability measures to ensure students demonstrate reading proficiency before advancing; and
• Expanded teacher training and classroom support to improve instruction outcomes.

The measure also reinforces that teachers should not promote students to the next grade just because of their age or to avoid holding them back if a child cannot read at the expected level, while preserving good-cause exemptions and additional supports for students with special needs and English language learners.

“Oklahoma must be honest about outcomes,” Hilbert said. “Advancing a child who cannot read is not compassionate; it’s negligent. This bill ensures students get the help they need early, rather than paying the price later.”

Hilbert’s bill and several others like it are modeled, at least in part, after Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), approved in 2013. Since the implementation of the LBPA, Mississippi has climbed from 49th to ninth for fourth-grade reading, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). And Mississippi is the only state in the nation where the bottom 10 percent of students scored higher in 2024 than their 2013-2014 school-year counterparts.

Oklahoma had a law similar to Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act that produced dramatic improvement in Oklahoma outcomes through 2015, but the measure was substantially watered down and largely repealed through the years. Oklahoma’s academic outcomes in reading have steadily declined since 2015.

NAEP tests show that only 23 percent of Oklahoma fourth-grade students scored at or above proficient in 2024, meaning students were meeting grade-level expectations. Only two states did worse.

While Oklahoma fourth-grade student performance on the NAEP reading test was above the national average in 2015, it is now far below that average despite massive spending increases in recent years.

State Rep. Rob Hall, R-Tulsa, and state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair, have also filed legislation in both chambers to address what they call Oklahoma’s reading crisis.

House Bill 2944, by Hall and Bergstrom, creates the Oklahoma Reading Excellence through Accountability, Development, and Standards (READS) Act. Senate Bill 1271, by the same authors, is identical legislation.

Both bills would require early intervention for K-3rd students who have a reading deficiency, reimplement the policy of retaining third graders who do not read on grade level, and assign literacy coaches to districts with low reading scores.

State Sen. Adam Pugh, an Edmond Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, has also filed legislation regarding reading instruction.

Senate Bill 1778, by Pugh, amends the Strong Readers Act to require intensive reading interventions for first-through-third-grade students with significant reading deficiencies.

Under the bill, students in first, second, and third grade who are not reading at grade level would be required to participate in a summer academy. Third-grade students who complete summer school and still do not read at grade level could be required to repeat third grade.

“It’s not just one year you fall behind,” Pugh said. “Over time, it actually accelerates, and by fifth grade, you might be two years behind. By eighth grade, you might be three or four years behind.”

State Rep. Dick Lowe, an Amber Republican who chairs the House Common Education Committee, has also filed legislation to address literacy concerns in Oklahoma public schools.

House Bill 3023 also encourages early literacy interventions for struggling readers. Under HB 3023, reading interventions must be provided via direct instruction and cannot be done through online-only methods.

“Literacy remains a major concern for Oklahoma parents, educators, and policymakers,” Lowe said. “House Bill 3023 might not be exactly the right solution, but now is the time to bring ideas to the table and have thoughtful discussions about how we can all help improve literacy for all students.”

Pugh’s SB 1778 allows third-grade students who do not read at grade level to be promoted to the fourth grade “with the written consent of the student’s parent or legal guardian.” Similarly, Lowe’s HB 3023 would require a student’s five-member Reading Proficiency Team, which includes the child’s parents, to recommend retention before a child would have to repeat third grade.

During an October legislative study focused on Oklahoma’s reading challenges, Casey Sullivan Taylor, senior policy director with ExcelInEd, told state lawmakers that Oklahoma’s prior reading law was undermined by exemptions that allowed children to be promoted to fourth grade even when they did not read near grade level.

“It was compromised before it was repealed because there was a parent-override option,” Taylor said. “There were so many opportunities to bypass what was perhaps a needed retention for intervention that it weakened and diluted the effectiveness of it. In Mississippi, we use a state assessment with good-cause exemptions for qualifying students. There is no override.”

While parents “are involved” throughout the process, including setting a plan in place to improve a child’s reading skills, Mississippi parents “don’t have the ability to override, because as much as we value parents’ partnership, we have to use the data that we have to make the best decision for a student,” Taylor said.

During a press conference unveiling SB 1778 and other measures, Pugh noted that the exemptions in Oklahoma’s prior reading law allowed 93 percent of third-grade students who were identified as reading far below grade level to nonetheless advance to fourth grade.

“Of all kids in third grade that should have been held back because they were not on reading level, only seven percent of them were,” Pugh said.