At The Oklahoma State Capitol: A Push To Boost Reading Scores In The State

Legislators are looking at the actual science of how kids learn how to read and applying that to state law.

Senate Bill 1906 by Senator Adam Pugh creates the Statewide Literacy Revolving Fund for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. “This is the foundation for how all learning takes place,” said Sen. Pugh, ( R) Edmond.

Oklahoma continues to rank 49th in education, and while there has been a slight increase in the state’s science and math scores, the state’s reading scores continue to fall short.

Senate Education Chair Adam Pugh is working to improve that score. “This bill seeks to codify some of the best practices that other states are using, provide resources for teachers that are already in the classroom, and provide resources for families,” said Sen. Pugh.

Pugh is looking at what’s been done over the last decade to improve literacy scores, and what can be done better. “We have a program that came into law in 2011 called the Reading Sufficiency Act but that program has not really been updated in the last decade,” said Sen. Pugh. “We want to apply what we're learning in neuroscience and how children's brains learn how to read and put that into a classroom,” said Sen. Pugh.

The push from Sen. Pugh has grabbed the attention of the U.S. senators. “There's an initiative in Congress in Washington DC to try to tackle what's becoming a nationwide problem now as we've seen our literacy scores decrease over the last decade,” said Sen. Pugh.

Pugh is working with Congress and looking at other states' success stories to figure out how to bring Oklahoma to the top. “This is the foundation for learning so we need to get as early as possible into a child's educational journey,” said Sen. Pugh.

The bill will also request additional funds for extra training for teachers to become reading coaches or provide campuses with additional reading specialists.