In 2024, Oklahoma lawmakers passed Senate Bill 362, which stated that Oklahoma public-school teachers “shall be prohibited from using the three-cueing system model of teaching students to read” starting in the 2025-2026 school year.

Under the “three-cueing” method, students are encouraged to guess words based on associated pictures or the context of the surrounding words, rather than sound out a word phonetically. The practice has long been criticized since research shows it does not teach children to read fluently.

However, while lawmakers voted to ban the use of three-cueing instruction in state classrooms, they did not prohibit Oklahoma’s colleges of education from training teachers to use three-cueing methods.

That may have been a mistake.

When Rebecca Pellam was hired to work as a reading specialist at Oklahoma Panhandle State University (OPSU) last year, she was asked during her job interview if she was familiar with the “science of reading,” which incorporates phonetics and other proven instructional strategies. But when she began the job, she instead found that three-cueing was embedded in OPSU’s elementary school teacher program through the Reading Recovery program.

OPSU is a public, four-year institution in Goodwell, Oklahoma.

“I couldn’t understand to start with why the (course) shells were Reading Recovery, because the science clearly shows that is a very outdated model for us to be teaching our graduates, and it was really shocking for me,” Pellam said.

A major review of Reading Recovery, a program that instructs future teachers to use three-cueing methods, found it impedes children’s educational progress.

A study published in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness in 2023 found that the impact of Reading Recovery on students’ reading/English Language Arts (ELA) test scores in third and fourth grades is “statistically significant and substantially negative.” The study found that students who participated in Reading Recovery in first grade had third- and fourth-grade state test scores in reading/ELA that were, on average, about one-half to one full grade level below the state test scores of similar students who did not participate in Reading Recovery.

Pellam knew Oklahoma law banned the use of three cueing in state school classrooms starting in the 2025-2026 school year. She also knew, firsthand, that there are much better ways to teach children to read than to employ the three-cueing method.

“As an educator with over a decade of proven classroom experience and a mother who has supported my daughter through severe dyslexia, I understand the critical importance of evidence-based literacy instruction,” Pellam said.

She worked to update the teacher-education program at Oklahoma Panhandle State University so prospective teachers would learn how to teach reading with scientifically valid methods, such as phonics.

However, at the end of the year, Pellam’s contract was not renewed. The university eliminated her position as well as the other full-time position in OPSU’s elementary education department.

Pellam said OPSU is in the process of eliminating its elementary education department and is instead replacing it with a broader, “generic” education-degree program. Under that program, she said students may obtain a teaching degree without necessarily taking instructional literacy courses.

“You can graduate from Panhandle with a teaching certificate and have no idea how to teach a kiddo how to read,” Pellam said.

She worries other Oklahoma colleges may pursue a similar strategy to avoid dealing with the requirements of Oklahoma’s Strong Readers’ Act, which bans the use of three-cueing instruction.

Pellam said officials at Oklahoma Panhandle State University have cited financial constraints as the driving force behind the change, but she has her doubts.

“In the long run, I might have gotten canned because I didn’t teach Reading Recovery,” Pellam said. “I’m not exactly sure.”

Lauren McBee, interim director of communications at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, said the school will continue to offer a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education that “aligns with Oklahoma law and policy, and includes required coursework in literacy instruction based on the science of reading.”

“We transitioned to science of reading methods over ten years ago, and our programs continue to evolve to reflect the latest research and best practices, so our graduates are prepared to succeed as educators and understand the critical role they play in teaching the next generation,” McBee said.

Oklahoma Panhandle State University is not the only state college linked to Reading Recovery.

Until recently, Oklahoma State University (OSU) touted the Reading Recovery program on its website, declaring that Reading Recovery “changes first-graders’ lives.” The OSU website also touted the availability of year-long training for teachers in Reading Recovery practices.

However, after the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs highlighted OSU’s promotion of Reading Recovery in June, the university stripped references to Reading Recovery from its website. A spokesperson said the program was being phased out and was not mandated as part of the university’s curriculum for aspiring teachers.

Pellam worked in education for seven years in Texas before working the last five in Oklahoma. She holds a doctorate in education leadership.

Her education career in Oklahoma includes serving as a high-school instructional coach in the Guymon school district in the 2021-2022 school year, serving as principal at the Yarbrough school district, working for Dove Virtual Academy, an online charter school, and then working for OPSU last year.

According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests administered in Oklahoma and nationwide in 2024, only 30 percent of Oklahoma fourth graders are proficient or better in reading with the rest performing below grade-level expectations. NAEP found 41 percent of Oklahoma fourth graders were “below basic,” meaning they are a year or more below grade level. Only three states had a lower average score than Oklahoma on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading test.

Being aware of Oklahoma’s poor reading outcomes when she first arrived in the state, Pellam was surprised to find many state schools were using outdated and discredited instructional strategies like three cueing.

“I had been trying to understand what is happening in Oklahoma education for the past five years since I moved to Oklahoma,” Pellam said. “I’m Texas teacher-trained. I came to Oklahoma with a doctorate in education, really excited about being the high school instructional coach at Guymon, and everything that I’ve been taught that works is not what’s happening in Oklahoma schools. It’s been really hard to understand and figure everything out. And so OPSU was very eye-opening: Of course we’re not able to help our kiddos read because our new teachers are coming fresh out of college not knowing how to teach kids to read.”

[NOTE: This story has been updated since publication to include comment from Oklahoma Panhandle State University, which was provided nearly two days after request.]