OPINION
“There is no reason a child cannot read before they are in third grade,” former State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in 2019. “But our teachers have to teach based on the science of reading, and that is not happening across this state. It is happening in pockets.”
While I disagreed with Hofmeister on many issues, I give her credit where credit is due: She spoke a hard truth about the severity of Oklahoma’s reading crisis.
The problem persists. And it is unacceptable. The science of reading is a large body of research about how kids best learn to read. Short answer: Kids need explicit instruction on the relationship between letters and sounds (i.e., phonics). The scientific evidence is clear. We know how to teach children to read.
Imagine if the law of universal gravitation or the germ theory of disease were treated as take-it-or-leave-it propositions in our universities and public schools. Policymakers would have no patience with science-deniers who shortchanged their students like that.
And yet, too many educators (in higher education and in K-12) continue to snub the science of reading.
Oklahoma’s reading outcomes are among the worst in the nation. And sadly, we did it to ourselves. Just as our state’s Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) was beginning to show results a decade ago, policymakers proceeded to water it down.
It’s time to address the problem both in higher education and in common education.
Policymakers should stop funding teacher-training programs in Oklahoma that involve anything other than phonics and the science of reading. Just as they made clear to the University Hospitals Authority in 2022 that hospitals don’t get the money unless they stop harmful “gender reassignment” procedures on children, lawmakers should now tell higher ed that they don’t get the money unless they stop harmful pedagogic procedures on children.
In addition, they should spur reform by expanding Oklahoma’s system of higher-education vouchers. Fund students, not systems. (Gov. Kevin Stitt rightly uses that phrase with regard to common education; it’s time to do it in higher ed as well.) Let students choose universities—public or private—which will best train them in the science of reading.
Regarding common education, OCPA laid out several reforms in a 2024 policy paper (“A Call to Action: Changing the Trajectory of Reading in Oklahoma”). One of the most important is ending social promotion.
To his great credit, state Rep. Rob Hall (R-Tulsa) is holding an interim study this fall to “explore the implementation of a policy to retain students in the grade levels focused on literacy (K-3) until they have mastered essential literacy skills.”
Oklahoma’s school-produced illiteracy crisis is real. Policymakers must act.
While we push for change, parents don’t have to wait. OCPA’s literacy website offers practical resources to help children today. Visit https://www.readok.org.
