Up from the basement: How Alabama is raising 4th-grade reading scores
Alabama's fourth-graders are close to the national average in reading, despite high poverty rates and relatively low school spending. They used to be the worst readers in the nation, stuck in "America's educational basement with Mississippi and Louisiana.
Fordham's Liana Loewus looks at how Alabama raised fourth-grade reading scores, closing the gap with affluent states.
Alabamans learned from next-door neighbor Mississippi's "miracle," also known as the "Mississippi marathon," she writes. State leaders endorsed "evidence-based reading instruction," also known as the "science of reading," and adopted "a multifaceted strategy for implentation."
It came from the top down, writes Loewus. The state required K–3 teachers to complete science-of-reading trainings. Schools were given a short list of approved curricula and told the state-funded reading coaches couldn't be assigned to other duties. "A third-grade reading guarantee . . . pushes adults to intervene when students struggle, and stay the course when those policies generate pushback."
Alabama invested in training and supporting skilled reading coaches, she writes. "No, it’s not cheap, financially or politically. But then again, neither is a systemic failure to teach students to read."
Unlike other states, which give districts a wide list of reading curricula to use, Alabama has approved only two K-5 choices, Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) by Amplify and Open Court Reading by McGraw-Hill. Both "teach foundational skills explicitly and systematically, with attention to phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension," writes Loewus.
Eighth-grade reading scores remain very low. Alabamans hope that will change on future tests.
Alabama is also a leader in improving elementary math achievement, she writes. The Alabama Numeracy Act, passed in 2022, "puts state-funded, state-trained math coaches in all K–5 schools; requires the use of approved materials and evidence-based teaching practices; mandates early screening for foundational skills; and ensures students who are behind receive intervention and can attend summer math programs."
K-5 teachers must spend at least 60 minutes a day on math instruction. Georgia, Indiana and Maryland also have adopted a 300-minute-per-week rule for math in hopes of boosting low scores.
Twenty-two other states have passed laws or adopted policies to improve math scores, which are down nearly everywhere, according to an Education Week tracker.
Alabama ranked 51st in the nation (lower than the District of Columbia) on NAEP for fourth-grade math in 2019, she notes. By 2024, it had climbed to 31st. "According to the Education Scorecard, third- through eighth-grade math scores rose about three-quarters of a grade level between 2022 and 2025."
Northern states are trying to emulate what Karen Vaites dubbed The Southern Surge. But many blue states are reluctant to restrict teachers' autonomy by imposing a preferred teaching method or curriculum, writes Sarah Schwartz in Education Week.
Low achievement by middle schoolers is a problem in the Southern Surge states -- and everywhere else. Only a few states and districts are focusing on older students, writes Kymyona Burk, who was Mississippi's literacy director.
"Virginia policymakers have been first out of the gate to tackle adolescent literacy in a meaningful way" by "screening older students for reading gaps, training teachers, tightening curriculum requirements, and deploying coaches to middle schools," she writes. A new Mississippi law calls for similar practices and requires screening to see whether fifth graders are on track in math.
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