The Bipartisan READ Act Aims to Make Evidence-Based Reading Instruction a National Standard

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), joined by Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) and Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO), introduced the Reading Excellence and Achievement for Development Act on Monday. The bipartisan measure, known as the READ Act, would modernize the federal government’s largest literacy program for the first time in nearly a decade and make evidence-based instruction the standard for grant recipients instead of the exception.

The bill changes the Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant, which requires states to receive funding to build literacy programs based on the “science of learning” and to institute early literacy tests for young children. The approach relies on basic components such as phonological awareness, fluency, language structure, vocabulary and background knowledge, and directs states to make student outcome data public.

The demand has increased. Only about 35 percent of eighth-graders could read in 2024, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and that year’s NAEP also recorded the lowest average 12th-grade reading scores since the test began in 1992. Millions of students leave high school unable to learn well, the higher education gap, the higher education gap, which reduces their quality of higher education, and of reducing their quality of higher education.

Advocates have described the READ Act as the most important federal reading reform proposal in years, and Democratic co-sponsors on the board are expected to clear Cassidy’s committee and could reach a floor vote.

Personal Assignment of a Senator

For Cassidy, the law is personal. The Louisiana Republican, the first physician to chair the Relief Committee, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview that this issue is focused on his family. Her daughter has dyslexia, a condition she said affects about one in five people and one she believes early testing can help resolve.

“There shouldn’t be a stigma about being dyslexic,” Cassidy told ABC News, describing it as a unique way of learning to read without compensation. With proper early identification, he said, a struggling student can overcome that initial hurdle and continue to learn alongside their peers.

Cassidy, who lost his Republican primary in Louisiana two weeks ago and will leave the Senate next year, has singled out literacy as the heart of what schools do. “Education changed my life,” he said. He expressed confidence in the power of the bill, telling the network, “If we can get this [READ Act] I’ve done it, I think this can go deeper.”

What the Bill will do

The READ Act aims to strengthen reading instruction and learning outcomes by supporting learning science practices, improving teacher preparation, and increasing access to quality resources and interventions. Specifically, the bill may:

• Revamp the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) program by creating a new reservation of grant funds in the relevant underperforming states. Within one year of receiving the appropriations, those states must conduct a statewide literacy needs assessment and complete a comprehensive literacy education program based on it.
• Support the state’s use of evidence-based, science-based learning practices, including investing in literacy coaches and promoting the use of quality instructional materials.
• Requires states to offer early literacy testing, including dyslexia, at least once before third grade.
• It requires grantee countries to review their teacher preparation programs to ensure relevance to the science of learning.
• It requires schools that educate students in kindergarten through eighth grade to notify parents or guardians when a child is identified as academically at-risk or performing below grade level – both at the beginning of the year and after any literacy assessment throughout the year.
• Improve early identification and intervention of students at risk of learning difficulties, including dyslexia, through early screening.
• Protect and strengthen literacy research capacity through wider institutions and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

For Cassidy, the closing months of his Senate term are about consolidating that work into the fa

Parents, former secretaries follow the READ Act

This effort received support from all political parties and lawyers who said this policy came from grassroots organizing rather than Washington.

Earlier this year, the National Parents Association, which helped shape the bill’s policy, convened a Capitol Hill bipartisan forum with the George W. Bush Institute in collaboration with Cassidy’s office. Education officials from across the country told those who attended the event that literacy strategies are working and the federal government should reach out to states that have seen the benefits.

“This didn’t start in Washington. It started at kitchen tables and in community meetings, with parents not knowing that something is wrong when their child can’t read the words on the page,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. “The READ Act is what happens when parents lead and Washington finally follows. The last time parents reformed federal education policy on this scale was in 1975, when families successfully fought for free public education for every child with disabilities. Reading and writing education and better student outcomes across the country.”

Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who served under President Obama, cited gains in the South as proof that the approach works. “We’ve known how to teach kids to read for a very long time. The failure wasn’t a lack of evidence. It was a lack of urgency and a lack of will. The READ Act takes what works in states like Mississippi and Louisiana and makes it the standard instead of the exception, and it gives parents the honest information they need to advocate for their children. There’s nothing connected about a child learning to read and having a good memory,” Duncan said.

Margaret Spellings, who led the department under President George W. Bush, framed literacy as a question of national competitiveness. “Reading is more than just an education issue; it’s a workforce, competitiveness, and ultimately a moral issue that Americans want policymakers to address now.” A Bipartisan Policy Center poll last December confirmed that Americans believe literacy is essential to opportunity, and they want leaders to work together to ensure it is available to all children. the belief that every child can learn to read,” said Spellings.

Fellow sponsor Maggie Hassan echoed the urgency.

“In the greatest country in the world, we can’t admit that too many kids are still struggling to learn in the classroom and that only one in three students leave high school as gifted students,” co-sponsor Maggie Hassan, D-NH., said in a statement.

Some experts still caution that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to literacy problems and say that reading to children and other balanced strategies should complement phonics-based teaching.

For Cassidy, the closing months of his Senate term are about strengthening that mission for families like his.