Education

Third-grade reading reform clears both chambers of Oklahoma Legislature

March 25, 2026

Ray Carter

Legislation designed to dramatically improve Oklahoma’s public-school literacy outcomes, including a mandate that students repeat the third grade if they read far below grade level, has advanced from both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature with strong support.

“This is legislation that I’ve been talking about, relentlessly, for many months now,” said House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. “For us in Oklahoma, we’re in a situation where 73 percent of our third-graders cannot read at grade level, and it’s unacceptable. If you ask anyone where Oklahoma ranks nationally in education rankings, we’re lucky if they rank us as high as 48. And it is high time that we as Oklahomans stop accepting failure in outcomes. We need to have better outcomes. Our educators want better outcomes. Our students deserve better outcomes. And this legislation, I believe, gives us the strongest literacy laws in the entire country.”

“Reading is the foundation for all learning, and if we don’t get literacy right in the early years, we are setting students up to struggle for the rest of their time in school and the workforce,” said state Sen. Adam Pugh, an Edmond Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “This legislation takes a comprehensive, data-driven approach to make sure every child has the support they need to succeed. This bill ensures we are identifying reading challenges early and intervening aggressively, while still giving students multiple opportunities to demonstrate progress. We are focused on helping students succeed, not simply holding them back.”

House Bill 4420, by Hilbert, requires third-grade students to score above the “below basic” level on the statewide reading test before they can be promoted to the fourth grade. In effect, the bill would require that students read at a second-grade level before starting fourth grade.

HB 4420 also requires early identification of reading deficiencies in lower grades, followed by intensive interventions for struggling readers, and increases the number of required regional literacy leads. It also requires that there be one reading specialist, or a contracted reading specialist, for each elementary school.

Under the bill, schools performing the worst on the end-of-year reading assessment will be given priority access to the reading coaches employed by the State Department of Education.

The legislation was amended on the House floor to adjust the funding formula for the distribution of reading funds. Hilbert said current law effectively punishes schools that do a good job.

“Current law is actually a disincentive for students to improve,” Hilbert said. “Because right now, school districts receive funds for however many students are on tier 2 or tier 3 supports. So, if a student improves, schools receive less money. That’s a problem.”

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

Under the bill, beginning in the 2027-28 school year, third-grade students who do not score above the “below basic” level on the third-grade statewide English test will have to repeat the third grade.

Pugh said the goal of the legislation is not for kids to repeat third grade, but to instead provide the help they need to become good readers long before then.

“What I hope the effect will be is that every single kid in the state of Oklahoma can read,” Pugh said.

Supporters said early intervention is crucial, but also noted that a child who cannot read and is socially promoted is being put on a path to long-term failure.

“We do have to be honest: If a child cannot read, moving them forward without fixing that isn’t helping them,” said state Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin. “It just makes the next year harder, more frustrating, and limiting even on the dreams and hopes that they have for themselves.”

HB 4420 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on an 86-6 vote. State Rep. Cyndi Munson, an Oklahoma City lawmaker who leads the House Democratic caucus and is expected to be the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in November, was among the handful of opponents.

SB 1778 passed the Oklahoma Senate on a 45-2 vote.

Each bill now proceeds to the opposite chamber.

The proposed reading laws are modeled, at least in part, after Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), which was first 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 2013-2013 school-year counterparts.

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

In 2015, Oklahoma students performed near the national average in reading, but today, Oklahoma trails peer states by more than a full grade level. Based on Spring 2025 state testing, just 27 percent of Oklahoma third-graders are reading at or above grade level, and 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 on NAEP’s fourth-grade reading test.

Oklahoma’s reading outcomes have declined even as school funding has increased dramatically.

In the 2017-2018 school year, Oklahoma public schools reported having $6,300,400,108 in total revenue and an average daily attendance of 647,896, an average of $9,724 per student

By the 2024-2025 school year, Oklahoma schools reported having $9,586,994,906 in revenue and an average daily attendance of just under 645,904, a per-pupil revenue average of $14,842 per student. That’s a per-pupil increase of 53 percent since 2017-2018.

Hilbert said Oklahoma would be much better off today had state officials stuck with the reading reforms in place before 2015.

“It’s unfortunate we didn’t stick with it, because at the time we were just below the national average,” Hilbert said. “If we had stuck with it, people would probably be talking about the Oklahoma Miracle and not Mississippi.”