Oklahoma schools will receive $58.9 million in federal funding over the next five years to provide reading and literacy programs across Oklahoma, State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced today.

“This grant will be a powerful supplement to the work we are already doing and offers us incredible resources to build upon the foundation we’ve built that prioritizes reading, writing, math, and other critical disciplines that will enable our kids to compete and succeed wherever their dreams take them,” Walters said.

Walters was joined by Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Ebony Johnson in making the announcement.

In the 2024-25 academic year, approximately $9 million will be provided to public schools that apply and qualify through a competitive grant process.

As part of this initiative, 25 districts across Oklahoma will receive sub-grants to enhance literacy instruction, provide targeted interventions, and foster a stronger foundation in language arts for students.

Officials said the project will focus on achieving the following key goals:

• Early Language Development: Increase the percentage of four-year-old children who achieve significant gains in oral language skills. This will be measured through universal screening tools, diagnostic assessments, and formative assessment processes.
• Elementary Literacy Proficiency: Increase the percentage of fifth-grade students who meet or exceed proficiency levels on the Oklahoma state reading/language arts assessment.
• Middle School Literacy Proficiency: Increase the percentage of eighth-grade students who meet or exceed proficiency levels on the Oklahoma state reading/language arts assessment.
• Teacher Training and Professional Development: Provide Oklahoma teachers with extensive training in the science of reading and effective literacy instructional strategies to ensure high-quality literacy education across the state.

The grant awarded to the Oklahoma State Department of Education is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant Program.

Announcement of the literacy grants continues a trend of growing focus on literacy in Oklahoma.

During this year’s legislative session, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 362, which renamed Oklahoma’s state Reading Sufficiency Act as the Strong Readers Act and implemented several changes to the state reading law.

SB 362 requires that Oklahoma teachers be trained in “the science of reading to provide explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, encoding, writing, and comprehension and implement reading strategies that research has shown to be successful in improving reading among students with reading difficulties.”

Research has shown that many Oklahoma teachers have not been properly trained in reading instruction.

The new law also prohibited the use of the “three-cueing system” of reading instruction, a discredited method that basically asks students to make guesses based on pictures or surrounding language rather than sound out a word.

Due to a strong emphasis on literacy efforts during the tenure of former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi, Oklahoma’s fourth-grade reading scores on National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests were improving at one of the fastest rates in the nation in 2015. Oklahoma recorded the third-largest gain in the country that year and had a state score above the national average.

But under State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, who served from 2015 to 2023, literacy rates plummeted.

By 2023, Oklahoma’s fourth-grade NAEP reading score had declined significantly and outranked only three states and the District of Columbia.