A version of the following commentary appeared in the Columbia Missourian.
There are two bills under consideration in Jefferson City—House Bill 2872 and Senate Bill 1442—that would help address the reading crisis in Missouri. The foundation of both bills is a mandatory, third-grade retention policy based on a reading test. Similar policies have helped students become confident, capable readers in other states.
However, opponents have pushed back, arguing that third-grade retention has not been shown to improve long-term outcomes, particularly in eighth grade and beyond.
The commonly cited example is Mississippi. Since committing to early literacy reform in 2013, the state has seen strong gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), rising from 49th to 9th in state rankings based on fourth-grade reading. This is frequently contrasted to its more modest improvement in eighth-grade reading over the same period, from 50th to 41st.
While it is important to worry about later-grade outcomes, it is also important to recognize Missouri is facing a dire challenge in basic, early-grade literacy skills. On the 2024 NAEP, 42 percent of Missouri fourth graders scored “below basic” in reading—the lowest possible level. This placed the state 38th in the nation in reading proficiency, far below its ranking of 14th in 2003.
Serious action is needed, and the policy reforms in HB 2872 and SB 1442 have a proven track record across the country. A study from Michigan State University found that states with policies mandating third-grade retention are associated with significant and persistent increases in high-stakes reading scores (such as the MAP for Missouri). The researchers further noted that there is no evidence that reading scores increase in states without a retention component.
Of course, third-grade retention is not an end-all-be-all. But if a student cannot read by the end of third grade, catching up becomes far more difficult as instruction shifts toward comprehension. This policy gives students a better chance to succeed in the long run.
Many states, including Mississippi, have seen large gains in fourth-grade reading with early literacy reform, but smaller gains in eighth grade. Gains in eighth grade still tend to be positive, but the fact that they are smaller highlights a need for continued reform in higher grades as well.
A recent report from Reading Reimagined, a national research initiative, highlights that students need to continue learning to decode, even after third grade. Decoding focuses on connecting letters and letter patterns to spoken sounds, what many think of as learning to read.
Early foundational skills hinge on fluently decoding one- and two-syllable words. But words get more complex in higher grades, and older students need to learn to decode them, too. One example of a skill that supports this is morphology, which uses word parts to infer meaning. For instance, the word “education” is broken up into two parts: “educ” from the Latin root educare (to train, nurture, mold) and “-ation,” which is a suffix meaning “the act of.” Understanding these parts helps students both pronounce complex words and infer their meanings.
Older readers need an expanded set of tools to handle increasingly difficult texts. If students are not equipped to read more complex words fluently (and without great effort), they will struggle to comprehend what they read as more brain power will go to decoding the words themselves. In fact, the same report found that students’ reading comprehension stalls when they cannot decode effectively.
House Bill 2872 and Senate Bill 1442 focus on basic literacy skills in the early grades, which are the foundation of a student’s reading journey. While reading reform in Missouri should not stop there, these bills are a great place to start.
