Ohio hits its best reading scores in five years after a first full year of the 'science of reading'
62.2% of students reached proficiency in English language arts, the highest in five years, and all ten student groups the state tracks improved, including economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.
Ohio has released its school report cards for 2025–26, the first full year in which every school taught reading through the “science of reading”: a research-based approach that explicitly teaches how sounds map to letters, along with vocabulary and comprehension. State law made it mandatory.
The results
- 62.2% of students reached proficiency in English language arts, a five-year high.
- In maths, 56.4%, also the best in that period.
- Reading improved in all ten student groups the state tracks, including economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.
- 16,900 more children started kindergarten ready to learn to read than the year before.
- Chronic absenteeism fell from 25.1% to 23.9% in a year.
Behind it is also a network of 140 literacy coaches in more than 200 schools, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which now sends free books to more than 430,000 children a month.
The caveat
The figures come from Ohio’s government, which credits the new method, but its effect has not been separated from the other measures. The trend matches that of other states that have adopted the science of reading. The data were released in mid-September.
