Robert Rogers, president of Reading League Texas, is right: “A school’s single most important job is to teach a child to read.”
Without knowing how to read, it is impossible to succeed in other subjects. And without knowing how to read well and with interest, it is hard to imagine solutions to problems, create opportunities for yourself and your family or simply keep up with a changing world.
So, how is Texas doing in teaching children to read?
Let’s start with a few encouraging signs. At the policy level, state Rep. Harold V. Dutton Jr. has introduced a bill in the 2025 Legislature to advance effective reading instruction, just as the veteran Houston Democrat did in 2023, when a similar measure died.
Dutton wants to require districts to provide reading diagnoses and interventions for students in kindergarten through third grade that center on sounding out whole words (phonics), connecting letters and sounds (phonemic awareness), accurate reading (fluency), knowing and grasping words (vocabulary) and understanding a text (comprehension). Researchers have found that such instruction is most effective in developing young readers.
Dutton has company in advancing this approach, otherwise known as the science of reading. Fort Worth ISD is making literacy instruction goal No. 1 since only about a third of its students read at grade level. The district’s new superintendent, Karen Molinar, declared in March that “literacy is our top priority.”
Her comments followed the school board’s embrace of the same goal in January. And Mayor Mattie Parker wasted no words in a recent speech: “Fort Worth is the fourth-largest city in Texas, and our kids can’t read. Our kids can’t freaking read. … We are the city that builds the F-35. I think we can figure out how to help kids read.”
The district’s strategic plan emphasizes the five pillars of reading instruction included in Dutton’s bill. “Everything around literacy will be anchored in evidence-based practices,” Deputy Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury told the Fort Worth Report.
In Houston, Superintendent Mike Miles is applying the science of reading across all Houston ISD schools. That includes ensuring schools use an appropriate curriculum.
“There were 32 different curricula when I got here [in 2023]”, he said during an interview. “Most did not focus on the science of reading.” Now, most use one of three curricula, each of which incorporates the five fundamentals that develop reading skills.
Legislation passed in 2019 requires districts to offer instruction based upon the science of reading for principals and teachers who serve students from kindergarten through third grade. Dallas ISD has gone beyond that requirement, school trustee Ben Mackey says, offering the training to assistant principals and other staff as well. The district also uses a classroom curriculum that makes use of the science of reading. Two years ago, Mackey reports, Dallas ISD expanded the curriculum across the entire district.
It’s encouraging that these districts and Dutton, one of the Texas House’s most senior members, are focusing on reading instruction. But here’s the challenge: Even if legislators follow Dutton’s lead, and even if districts follow suit with a science-of-reading approach, the efforts may go for naught unless the reforms are faithfully implemented and kept in place over time. Sticking to the science of reading year over year is hard work. Results don’t happen automatically.
Consider scores for Houston ISD students on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress reading exam. Fourth-graders increased four percentage points on the tests, showing progress since the 2022 exam. And 21% of Houston ISD eighth-graders read proficiently, meaning they understand their texts. That’s the district’s highest proficiency rate in two decades. But that 21% figure also means four-fifths of eighth-grade students do not read proficiently. And only half of Houston ISD fourth-graders read at or above the most basic level, meaning they only partially master the required knowledge and skills.
The up-and-down nature of Houston’s results is why Miles’ efforts matter. Among other strategies, the district is assisting teachers with the pacing of their instruction and turning the curriculum into effective teaching.
“Curriculum doesn’t teach,” Miles put it. “You have to marry curriculum with instruction.”
Reading League Texas’ Rogers contends principals are particularly key to implementing the science of reading. They lead their campuses, so they need to know what the science says and why it matters. They also need to ensure the research is translated into classroom instruction. This involves blocking-and-tackling strategies like setting campus schedules so reading specialists are available at the right times.
For their part, district administrators and school trustees need to create a culture that embraces the science of reading. And the Texas Educational Agency should work closely with regional service centers and schools to keep making effective reading instruction a reality.
The implementation part has been central to success in other states. Mississippi put literacy coaches in every low-performing school. And Mississippi has sustained its commitment to raising academic standards, including reading. Grace Breazeale, a research director at a policy institute called Mississippi First, said that commitment has been pivotal to the state’s improvements.
Nobody wins Nobel Prizes for faithful implementation of proven strategies or long-term commitment to them. But that’s how kids across Texas will become readers. That’s the prize we want.