By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Top-priority literacy bills overwhelmingly passed the Oklahoma House and Senate on Wednesday, as leaders in both chambers inch closer to a policy agreement.
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, saw his legislation, House Bill 4420, pass 86-6 shortly after Senate Bill 1778 from Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, cleared the Senate 45-2.
Pugh said his legislation contains about 95% of the language found in Hilbert’s reading bill.
Literacy legislation has been a major focus for state lawmakers this year as they seek to improve Oklahoma’s poor reading scores in public schools.
Both bills agree that students should repeat third grade if they score below a basic level on state reading tests and perform poorly on an alternative reading assessment.
They would require schools to provide extra instruction and summer tutoring to early elementary students who struggle to read at grade level.
“I’m not asking anything of parents that I’m not taking on myself. My daughter’s in first grade,” Hilbert said during House discussion. “Every year we wait is another year kids aren’t getting the intervention that they need.”
Both bills would establish teacher training academies focused on the science of reading so educators could earn an early literacy micro-credential. Each school district would be required to employ a reading specialist, interventionist or early literacy micro-credential holder for every elementary school.
Pugh’s bill would assign students in first through third grade to a transitional classroom or pull-out sessions if they score below their grade level in reading screeners.
Transitional classes would be optional under Hilbert’s bill.
“It’s kind of a semi-retention by a different name because really what you’re doing is you’re retaining the student, but you’re only retaining them in the subject area where they need that intervention,” Pugh said on the Senate floor. “So, they continue to have recess with their peers. They continue to be able to have lunch with their peers (and) band, extracurricular, co-curricular activities with their peers.”
Both bills now advance to the opposite chamber for further review.
