Editor’s note: This essay is an entry in Fordham’s 2025 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to answer this question: “What needs to happen next—at the state, district, and school levels—for the science of reading revolution to fulfill its promise and ensure that far more children learn to read well?” Learn more.
Your state has checked the science of reading policy boxes. Now what?
At least 42 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted similar early literacy policies in a bold move to increase reading achievement. Although the components adopted vary by state, most laws focus heavily on building educators’ knowledge of the science of reading and identifying students who struggle with reading early so that teachers can intervene. This approach has resulted in improvements in states such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Indiana. In other states, however, improvement has been slow, if at all.
From 2013–2019, I led the implementation of Mississippi’s landmark science of reading law. In six years, the state improved 20 spots in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) rankings, or the Nation’s Report Card, and met the national average in fourth-grade reading for the first time. Policymakers and advocates often reach out to me to share that they have adopted all or most of the law’s components. Then comes the question, “It’s been a year (or two) since our law passed, so why aren’t we seeing improvement?”
First, I encourage a little patience. Then I explain the best policies lay the groundwork for positive change but they don’t bring about that change on their own. Policy implementers must put the law into action, intentionally creating conditions for the law to be successful:
- State leaders must effectively communicate the law’s requirements and provide guidance and district level support for effective implementation.
- District leaders should regularly monitor student data to gauge improvements or gaps in teaching and learning.
- School leaders and teachers must engage in ongoing professional development grounded in the science of reading and coaching to strengthen reading instructional practices in the classroom.
- Advocates and parents must continue to advocate for evidence-based literacy practices beyond elementary school and seek updates to laws as is needed.
Communication matters
Too often a communications plan isn’t on state policymakers’ checklists, but it should be to ensure science of reading laws succeed and there is widespread understanding of the new law. A lack of communication can sometimes lead to anxiety and frustration; therefore, states must be proactive to help stakeholders understand the goals, the plan for achieving them, and the role they play in ensuring success.
Multiple data points are crucial
Collecting the right data is critical to accelerating progress. Because most laws target kindergarten through third grade, best practices such as universal screening three times per year usually don’t apply to other elementary grades. The lack of data in the upper grades gives an incomplete picture of how students are progressing and makes it challenging to identify students who may be regressing until end of year state summative assessment results are released. By then, it’s too late to intervene, and those students’ struggles have been carried on to the next grade. Quarterly universal screening of all students not only identifies those at risk of reading difficulties, but it also allows for course correction if instructional approaches or interventions aren’t working.
School and system leaders should view end-of-year state assessments as an opportunity to analyze data to see how students are performing against a state’s reading standards and identify bright spots or instructional gaps.
Adult learning is essential
Data collection and analysis must be paired with strong professional development in scientifically-based reading instruction and classroom-based literacy coaching. Mississippi’s law, like laws in at least 37 other states, requires the Department of Education to make evidence-based training in the science of reading and coaching widely available for teachers, but decisions and actions at the school level may impact their effectiveness.
School leaders must carve out time for teachers to participate in professional learning opportunities and create a culture that embraces job-embedded coaching and supports teachers trying new strategies or even making mistakes. Administrators should also participate in literacy-based professional development themselves. This will help to strengthen their capacity to observe reading instruction and provide feedback to teachers. For example, leaders should know that during reading instruction, students might be talking to each other, listening, or reading with a partner instead of sitting and working quietly at their desks. Leaders should also know that teaching students how to read by looking at pictures to guess what the words say is not in line with the evidence for best practices in teaching reading.
Beyond elementary school
While some state leaders are pleased at the progress happening among elementary students, there is concern about lackluster reading performance among older students. The NAEP eighth-grade and 12th-grade reading scores show adolescents and teenagers are having tremendous challenges with accessing and understanding the complex texts they encounter in middle and high school.
To this end, some states have expressed interest in expanding science of reading laws beyond third grade, and there are a few states already leading the way. Virginia lawmakers, for example, recently expanded some of their science of reading law requirements into middle school, providing evidence-based literacy training for middle school teachers, placing literacy coaches in schools, and providing interventions to adolescents struggling with reading. Alabama’s efforts to improve adolescent literacy outcomes are underway and started with a $10 million dollar commitment to create a framework and resources for implementation.
For these and other efforts to work, it will be critical for policies aimed at improving adolescent literacy to focus on strengthening core instruction across content areas for all students. For students who need additional support with reading, schools must identify age-appropriate resources that support students with advanced phonics, vocabulary, morphology, comprehension, background knowledge, and writing. It will also be important to dedicate time within the school day for students to receive interventions or enrichment without taking time away from grade-level instruction.
Reexamine your laws over time
Three years after we passed our landmark science of reading legislation, lawmakers updated it to require schools to create individual reading plans for struggling readers to document and monitor the effectiveness of the interventions being provided. For too long, we provided the same interventions for an extended period of time without knowing if they were working or not.
For states that choose to revisit and strengthen their literacy laws, policymakers should consider whether the approaches that are recommended in policy should be mandatory or if new requirements should be adopted altogether. For example, Mississippi’s law doesn’t require schools to use high-quality instructional materials. The state has made a suggested list and publicly reports the curriculum schools use, but we could go further by requiring adoption from an approved list, so schools and districts don’t use a curriculum just because it’s familiar.
Strong science of reading policies can spur progress but not without a lot of subsequent hard work. In Mississippi, our fourth graders went from 49th in the nation in 2013 to ninth in 2024 in reading. People often ask what changed. We’re still a poor state, we’re still rural, and the legacy of segregation lingers. But we put a stake in the ground, and with strong leadership and in partnership with schools and districts we continue to do the work required to ensure our landmark legislation lives up to its promise.
