Rianna Saslow, Deputy Director of Policy at National Parents Union
America is facing a literacy crisis that threatens the futures of millions of children and the strength of our future workforce. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed the lowest average 12th-grade reading scores since the test began in 1992, with roughly one-third of students scoring below the Basic level. That means millions of young people are leaving high school without the reading skills they need for college, careers, or full participation in civic life. Parents are watching their children struggle every day around kitchen tables across America, and they are demanding action through movements we have seen grow across the nation.
A crisis of this scale requires a national response. But that response must be intentional, and it must take into account all of the lessons we’ve learned from the patchwork of progress made over the past decade.
We have seen how investments in literacy can move the needle, but only when done right. In 2015, the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) program was created because poor literacy rates across the country were a significant problem impacting all facets of learning and livelihood. Over the past decade, that investment has taught us what it takes to have the science of reading reach every corner of every classroom. Now that we know both what works and how to implement it well, it’s time to scale. The law must be updated to reflect these lessons and to help districts change course when they invest in programs that don’t deliver results.
A national evaluation from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and American Institutes for Research (AIR) found that the CLSD program produced mixed results at best, and that programs backed by strong research were rarely the focus of grant-funded efforts. Few districts used federal literacy funds to purchase programs with clear evidence behind them, and few teachers reported using such programs in their classrooms.
On paper, districts appeared to be making thoughtful choices. Most reported using federal dollars to buy new reading curricula, supplemental programs, and professional development. But a closer look tells a different story. Districts purchased hundreds of different literacy programs with these funds, yet only 12% had strong or moderate evidence that they actually improve reading outcomes. Half of the programs were used by only one district nationwide. In other words, many districts spent federal dollars on unproven materials, rather than on well-established approaches with track records of success.
This points to a lesson we know all too well: local control is important, but state support and federal guardrails matter, too – especially when many schools across the country are failing kids year after year, generation after generation.
Louisiana offers a powerful example. In 2019, just 5% of the literacy programs that districts bought with federal funds had strong or moderate evidence to support their effectiveness. And while most programs purchased had no evidence at all, 10% had null or negative findings. In other words, 1 in 10 of the grant-funded programs that Louisiana districts purchased were proven to be ineffective or even harmful to students’ reading development.
Unsurprisingly, this landed Louisiana at the bottom of the barrel nationwide, ranking 49th in fourth-grade reading in 2019. In response, Louisiana enacted a comprehensive literacy law requiring districts to implement through-year literacy screeners, individual reading improvement plans, and parental notification systems. The state also developed a list of high-quality reading curricula aligned with proven research, and it provided free or subsidized training to help educators implement them. Since then, Louisiana has emerged as the only state to post significant gains in reading on the 2024 NAEP, climbing to 15th in the nation on fourth-grade reading.
Mississippi’s success story is even more widely known. The state climbed from the bottom of national rankings to a top ten state for fourth-grade reading, and they rank #1 when adjusted for poverty and other student demographics. Mississippi took a clear, state-led approach: identify effective curricula, hire literacy coaches to train educators on how to implement them, and hold schools accountable for results. Their work was bolstered by federal research and regional education laboratories (RELs) administered by the Institute for Education Sciences (IES).
And yet, despite this growing body of evidence, federal literacy policy largely skips over the state role, and the Trump Administration has dismantled the IES programs that helped Mississippi achieve its success. Under the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) program, states are required to send 95% of funds directly to districts; that leaves states with only a sliver of the resources they need to build capacity, support implementation, and scale what works.
Parents and families deserve better. They want to know that federal dollars are being used to give every child access to effective reading instruction, not to fund guesswork.
The Comprehensive Literacy State Development program remains one of the only federal tools that exists solely to improve reading, but it hasn’t been updated in nearly a decade. In that time, we’ve learned far more about what works and what doesn’t. Congress should preserve and fully fund this program, but it should also modernize it – strengthening accountability, empowering states to lead comprehensive literacy strategies, and ensuring that every dollar supports approaches proven to help children learn to read.
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ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARENTS UNION
With more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the National Parents Union is the united, independent voice of modern American families. We channel the power of parents into powerful policies that improve the lives of children, families and communities across the United States. https://nationalparentsunion.org/