But by the time the class leaves the following spring, the majority are ready for fourth-grade reading. It鈥檚 a transformation made possible by Frederick Elementary鈥檚 third-grade teaching team, whose strategies include daily interventions that break down literacy into 15 distinct skills.听

Frederick Elementary has roughly 360 students in a district of 737, located about 45 miles from Lawton, the nearest mid-sized city. About 87% of elementary students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch during the 2023-24 school year, which would predict a third-grade reading proficiency rate of only 40%, according to federal data that are the basis of 蜜桃影视鈥檚 Bright Spots literacy project. Instead, 71% of the school’s third graders were proficient in reading.

The academic scores of all schools in Oklahoma rose that year, after the education department, led by then-State Superintendent Ryan Walters, lowered testing standards. After the state last year, Frederick鈥檚 proficiency rate came in at 66%. 

Oklahoma requires students in early grades to receive reading intervention if they score below the 40th percentile on a screening test that鈥檚 given multiple times a year. Depending on a student鈥檚 level, state statute mandates specialized instruction in small groups at least twice a week.

At Frederick Elementary, reading intervention occurs daily.

The school鈥檚 program, called , can be difficult to implement, said reading specialist Danna Akin. 

鈥淭here’s been other schools that have wanted to get started in it, and they bought into the program, but it’s hard to get started,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he scheduling gets pretty complicated.鈥�

Students who score below the 40th percentile then take an exam with 95 Percent and are grouped together by the specific reading skills they are missing, such as understanding silent 鈥渆.鈥� A teacher 鈥� sometimes the librarian or special education instructor 鈥� works on a particular skill during a period called flex time, a 45-minute block that occurs each morning.

鈥淭he students above the 40th percentile obviously don’t need 95 Percent, so we put them in larger reading comprehension groups,鈥� Akin said. 鈥淏ut for the 95 groups, we try to keep it to seven or less [students] so they can get that one-on-one intervention time.鈥�

The instruction starts with plastic envelopes, each containing lessons and activities that teach a specific phonics skill. Students will move small chips over a board that has letter sounds and review them with their teacher. They鈥檒l practice vocabulary, spelling and reading short passages that include words they鈥檙e struggling with. 

Each of the 15 skills in the 95 Percent program takes students roughly a week to 10 days to go through. After students graduate from a skill, they are tested again to see if they can advance to the next envelope taught by another teacher during flex time.

鈥淚f you’re only doing [reading intervention] twice a week, they’re not going to get the reinforcement that they need. But if you’re doing it five times a week and for 45 minutes, they’ll get what they need,鈥� Akin said. 鈥淏y the time you’ve done that much reinforcement with them and you’ve spent that much time on a skill, they’ve got it.鈥�

Akin and Frederick鈥檚 three third-grade teachers review student progress at least once a week to see what each child still needs to become more proficient. A data wall in Principal Laura Yeager鈥檚 office tracks where each student in the intervention program is at.

鈥淪ometimes it takes a little while, but eventually they all get out of the 95 Percent program, and then they’re working on those grade-level skills,鈥� Yeager said. 鈥淭his year, we’ve been really fortunate. We鈥檝e been very, very successful getting kids out of it.鈥�

Frederick Elementary has only third, fourth and fifth grades. Younger students attend the Prather Brown Center from pre-K through second grade.

鈥淚t’s really challenging, because when the second graders come to us, we usually have a large amount that fall under that 40th percentile,鈥� Akin said. 

That’s a trend seen nationwide: A found that by the middle of the 2024-25 school year, only 58% of second graders were on track for core reading instruction and were likely to meet grade-level standards by spring.

Frederick’s third grade teaching team starts each school year with the mindset that they can鈥檛 begin with third grade standards, because they have to review second grade skills first. 

鈥淲e’re having to fill these phonics holes, which I think is happening probably everywhere 鈥� I don’t feel like that’s just a Frederick Elementary thing,鈥� said Halle Pineda, one of the third grade teachers. 鈥淏ut I don’t feel like we really get their best third-grade self until about January. And by then, we only have four months until it’s time to start wrapping up. It鈥檚 a game of catch-up.鈥�

Last fall, Frederick Elementary received $10,000 from the state to bolster the 95 Percent program. Yeager said the money was part of Oklahoma鈥檚 new , which has an initiative solely for rural schools. Frederick Elementary used the money for high-dosage tutoring in reading. Early data showed some students jumped from the 30th to the 60th percentile in literacy. Others, on average, improved 12 percentage points in their performance.

Oklahoma has been trying to improve its reading proficiency scores for . Legislation implemented in 2013 required third graders to be held back a grade if they scored poorly on the state鈥檚 reading test. After years of back and forth and added exemptions to the retention law, it was .听

Now, literacy is back on the table, and it鈥檚 center stage. Lawmakers want to reverse Oklahoma鈥檚 , which show that 27% of students scored at or above grade level in English language arts and 36% scored below basic during the 2024-25 school year. 

A law has a robust set of guidelines for struggling readers and reinstates third-grade retention. It鈥檚 part of a by the state鈥檚 chamber of commerce to boost local economies and make Oklahoma more competitive against other states for employees and business.

Beginning next school year, the mandates that first and second graders who don鈥檛 read at grade level at the end of the year either be held back or receive reading interventions when they return to school. 

Parents will be notified of their child鈥檚 reading deficiency within 30 days of its discovery. Third graders not at grade level by the end of the school year will be retained unless they qualify for an exemption. Some exemptions are geared toward English learners, students with disabilities or children who were already held back in earlier grades.

Chad Warmington, CEO of the , said there have been 鈥渓essons learned鈥� from the 2013 legislation that required third grade retention. This year鈥檚 law uses the practice as a last resort, he said. 

鈥淵ou can’t put in place a retention policy at the expense of all the other things that are going to improve outcomes 鈥� that’s just not how it works,鈥� he said. 鈥淟ast time, there was far more emphasis placed on the retention part, and not enough on what we are going to do to make sure teachers coming out of teaching schools are trained on the science of reading. Or that the teachers in the classroom are retrained and given opportunities to improve their skills in the science of reading.鈥�

Some educators want legislators to focus on other challenges in the classroom than reading proficiency, said Erika Wright, founder and former leader of the .

鈥淥ur teachers have been screaming about class sizes and behavior, and pay is always on the burner. When this whole literacy [initiative] came out, we pulled together a group with the State Chamber to sit in a room so that they could listen,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 sat in that room for four hours listening to the teachers saying, ‘This is awesome, but you’re not listening to us. This will not work because I have 29 kids in the kindergarten class and 14 of them have Individualized Education Programs and eight of them don’t speak English. I don’t have an assistant. I am spending all of my day managing behavior.’ 鈥�

Warmington said he鈥檚 heard from teachers who are dealing with similar issues, but a 鈥渧ast majority were absolutely for this deal.鈥�

Yeager said very few Frederick Elementary third graders were held back when a retention law was in place a few years ago, so the new legislation won鈥檛 have much of an impact in that area. But that Oklahoma held back more students than all other states, except Mississippi, when the old retention law was still active.

A small number of third graders will go through the 95 Percent program again once they enter fourth grade to build back skills they lost over the summer, Yeager said.

鈥淲e have a unique culture and a great team that works together with these 95 Percent groups. We also do these groups in fourth grade to make sure we’re not missing skills,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t doesn’t just stop with third grade, but it gives you that idea that, 鈥楾his is just not my class, and I’m responsible for my class鈥� scores.鈥� They’re all our kids, and that’s something my teachers say that makes the difference.鈥�