Georgia’s math scores ticked up this year. English Language Arts didn’t. In fact, Georgia has the steepest decline of all the states that have posted third-grade data this summer, and the share of students in the lowest level, “Beginning,” is up eight points since 2019. We can fix this, but only if state and district leaders stop sending mixed signals to families and focus on what works.
In 2023, lawmakers passed a strong literacy bill (HB 538) to catch problems earlier with new tools and training teachers in the science of reading. While the legislation gets implemented, it’s fair to ask: What else would generate progress?
First, be honest with parents. Eighty-nine percent of Georgia parents think their kids are reading at or above grade level, according to a national survey of educational opportunity by the advocacy group 50CAN. Yet only 35 percent of third graders were proficient or distinguished on the ELA portion of the 2025 Georgia Milestones. Parents can only respond to the problems they can see. Their trust in schools erodes the longer these gaps between perception and reality are allowed to exist.
Adding to the confusion, the state has students read informational and literary passages from books like “Sarah, Plain and Tall” to determine whether they can understand text on grade level. Georgia calls a spring third-grade reading level score of 520 “on track,” but a typical spring third grader nationally is closer to 645. For parents and teachers alike, the state needs to line up the signals about how students are doing and communicate when they are off track for meeting expectations for the grade.
Second, invest state and local resources in tutoring. Targeted, small-group tutoring can add about a third of a year of extra learning for struggling readers. During the pandemic, many Georgia programs grew too fast and drifted: sessions after school led to spotty attendance, groups were too big, and providers couldn’t coordinate with teachers.
We also need to fix the design. Keep groups small, schedule tutoring daily during school, and match it to complement but not duplicate what’s taught in class. Virtual models can help with staffing and keep costs manageable. Teach For America’s Ignite, for example, partners with Georgia districts to run daily small-group tutoring staffed by college students, who are led by an on-site facilitator, so the work is aligned to student needs. This is doable statewide with the coordination of resources.
Finally, have all students read from real books in a great curriculum.
Top-performing nations — Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and New Zealand — all emphasize a common, rigorous curriculum. Closer to home, the same can be said of Louisiana, the only state whose early reading achievement has fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
Georgia now has an approved list of eight “high-quality instructional materials.” Three programs in particular — Amplify Core Knowledge (CKLA), Bookworms, and EL Education — have the strongest evidence, adding two-thirds to a full year of extra learning gains for early elementary students. Yet only a small share, about 10 percent, of districts use them. Districts should adopt one of these, get teachers the deep training and coaching to use it well, and replace leveled readers with decodable texts for beginners. Keep the jargon out of the classroom plan: whole-class time for rich stories, a short daily block for phonics and fluency, and small-group time for targeted practice.
Georgia has ambitious goals, hoping to lead the nation in literacy by 2030. A lot of hard work has gone into implementing legislation, but if the state is to stop spinning its wheels, it needs to press for even more change.
Give families a single, plain-English reading report for each child that’s honest about what grade-level reading requires. Offer a simple tutoring blueprint districts can plug in, with funding tied to in-day schedules, small group sizes, and weekly progress checks. And nudge adoption by making the strongest curricula cheaper and easier to buy.
