Last month, the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores were released. These assessments are administered every two years to a representative sample of students from every state in fourth and eighth grade reading and math. They provide our nation’s best, most comprehensive look at student achievement. The NAEP results were grim in nearly every state, but Maine’s reading scores were especially so.

Maine fourth graders posted the worst declines in reading scores of any state from 2019 to 2024, scoring their lowest average reading scores since the NAEP was first administered in 1992.

This is devastating to Maine and its students. These results signal problems for Maine down the road — reading is critical to success in school and the workforce — and they should elicit concern from Maine’s leaders. Yet, per the Press Herald, Maine’s Department of Education “cast doubt on the significance of the national scores.” While no standardized test solely captures a child’s achievements or potential, nor do they singularly reflect the dedication of teachers, the recent NAEP scores are like a phone ringing off the hook.

Our state can answer that call. To start, Maine’s political and educational leadership should issue a clear acknowledgment of the problem. State Rep. Barbara Bagshaw, R-Windham, took a good first step during a hearing last week, saying, “I think we have fantastic teachers, but we have a problem. We have a big problem,” NAEP scores didn’t even elicit a tweet or press release from Maine’s Department of Education.

Unfortunately, not speaking about the problem doesn’t make it go away — and it certainly does not help kids. While it may be tempting, especially for politicians, to point to Maine’s scores as evidence for whatever the party-line talking point is that day, this should be resisted. Making sure kids can read isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a practical one and one that we should be honest about. This is an opportunity for Maine to lead the nation by honestly confronting the problem.

Once we acknowledge the problem, it’s time to act. Other states have done this effectively, and Maine can learn from them. One example is Louisiana, the only state to surpass pre-pandemic reading scores for fourth graders on the 2024 NAEP.

In 2021, Louisiana began requiring all K-3 teachers to complete professional development in the science of reading, an approach to reading instruction backed by decades of research that shows it makes a big difference in teaching children to read.

Recognizing this, many states (including Louisiana) have moved swiftly to improve training for teachers and teacher preparation program candidates (like those pursuing college degrees in elementary education, for example). Louisiana took notes from Mississippi’s efforts that catapulted its low-income kids from near the bottom in fourth grade reading to among the top in the nation on the NAEP. One of the core components of Mississippi’s plan? Improving teachers’ skills in science-based reading instruction. More recently, Pennsylvania’s governor signed into law a bipartisan bill in October requiring all of its public schools to provide reading instruction “aligned with the science of reading.”

Maine can do this too.

Right now, Maine offers teachers some access to professional development in science of reading instruction, but it’s optional. There seems to be a state literacy plan, but it’s difficult to decipher its objectives, and the science of reading doesn’t appear to be a key component. Maine’s Department of Education, with the backing of the legislature and governor, should create a plan to implement science-based reading instruction in classrooms statewide. That plan should include requiring all the current K-3 teachers to complete professional development in science-based reading instruction.

The plan should also include an overhaul of Maine’s teacher preparation program standards. This will help ensure that Maine’s future teachers are well trained in proven techniques. A 2023 review of Maine’s teacher preparation programs by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that the state’s three largest programs — the University of Maine, the University of Maine at Farmington and the University of Southern Maine — don’t teach their aspiring teachers the key components of reading instruction. We can better honor the dedication of those seeking to enter the teaching profession by ensuring that they are being adequately prepared to teach reading.

Maine’s reading scores are a big problem, but they are a problem we can solve with practical solutions. By honestly confronting this head-on and investing in science-based reading instruction, we help Maine kids learn the most critical skill they will ever need.