While working as a long-term substitute teacher in a Cheyenne high school not long ago, retired reading specialist Gay Wilson taught a junior who was reading at a second-grade level.
The school district had identified the student for an individualized education program and had provided additional support for years, she said. Despite that, “he had just never gotten the correct reading instruction” because teachers used a recently debunked method called Balanced Literacy to teach him, she recalled.
“Here’s a kid who’s going to graduate this year, and he’s going to get a diploma, but he’s probably going to be reading at a third-grade level,” Wilson said.
And his story? “It’s common across the state.”
Anecdotes like these motivated Wilson to trek to the Wyoming Capitol every day of this session, where she and fellow literacy advocate Kari Roden took a crash course in lobbying. They tracked down legislators, handed out data sheets, quashed rumors and bent the ear of any lawmaker who would listen. They were among a loose collection of parents, guardians and educators who, unlike the professional lobbyists crowding the halls, were not there on behalf of a client.
“It was a battle every day,” Roden recalled.
Their work paid off Friday when Gov. Mark Gordon signed Senate File 59, “K-12 language and literacy program,” into law.
The bill aims to ensure that every K-12 Wyoming student develops strong language and literacy skills and that struggling readers do not fall through the cracks. It will establish an evidence-based system of instruction, intervention and professional development to provide teachers, families and students with comprehensive and effective tools for teaching reading. The bill also addresses deficiencies and aims to bring all Wyoming districts in line.
“Reading is the foundation for every child’s success in school and in life,” Gordon said in a statement to WyoFile. “Senate File 59 keeps the focus where it should be, on Wyoming students.”
Wilson and Roden, of course, were there to see Gordon ink his name on the bill.
“It’s just such a win for Wyoming children,” Wilson said.
While the signing is only one action, advocates say it’s a monumental step in the effort to ensure children no longer get left behind to face the long-term uphill battles linked with low literacy skills, such as higher rates of incarceration and less economic mobility.
“It’s a historic day,” said Annie McGlothlin, whose own experience with a dyslexic grandchild led to her co-found an organization called WYO Right to Read.
“You might think passing the law would be the end, but really it is the beginning,” McGlothlin continued. “So here we go.”
A long time coming
Advocates have worked for nearly a decade to overhaul and improve how Wyoming teaches children to read. In that time, literacy instruction has emerged as a nationwide issue as American reading scores tick down. While Wyoming continues to rank comparatively high in national testing, literacy challenges are evident.
In 2024, 36% of the state’s fourth graders and 29% of eighth graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading on national standardized NAEP tests, lower than the previous five years. (2024 is the most recent year for which NAEP data is available.) Categories include below basic, basic, proficient and advanced.
Some 32% of Wyoming fourth graders performed below basic levels, which was a slight increase from 29% in 2022. For eighth graders, 30% scored below basic levels in 2024, up one percentage point from 2022.
As news reports and studies have shifted how the literacy field views reading instruction, many states have passed legislation to ensure evidence-based learning instruction is available to all students.
Wyoming’s version resulted largely from the work of a literacy subcommittee with input from stakeholders including parents and educators focused on better identification and treatment of conditions like dyslexia. Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder made literacy review a top priority after she was elected in 2022, creating a cabinet that had input on the bill draft.
The Legislature’s Joint Education Committee finalized the draft over the legislative off-season.
Once it hit the session, SF 59 cruised through the Senate with little trouble, but encountered resistance in the House.
Citing heavy constituent concern from educators, some wondered if the implementation would pile unnecessary professional development burdens on the already heavy workload of teachers. Others made efforts to limit it to K-6 or worried it would diminish local control.
“I don’t think anyone that is opposing this bill is saying that literacy isn’t fundamentally important,” said Casper Republican Rep. Julie Jarvis during floor debate on the third reading of the bill. “What is being said is maybe this isn’t the right way to go about it … I’m not sure that this bill does what we think it does.”
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, argued that the benefits of passing it far outweigh any reasons to hold off any longer. Literacy has been an interim topic for seven years, Brown noted.
“I wholeheartedly understand the plight of the teachers,” he said. “But … ladies and gentlemen, it is about the kids.”
Improved literacy can help stanch mental health problems, avoid bad outcomes and address an issue of high school graduates ill-prepared for college or the workforce, other House proponents said.
“We have a responsibility to make sure that when these kids are leaving our K-12 education, they are as equipped as they can possibly be to go on, if they so choose, to an institute of higher learning,” Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, said. Wyoming post-secondary institutions are reporting alarming rates of incoming freshmen who need remedial education, he said, and that doesn’t speak to the students who don’t attend college.
Cheyenne Republican Rep. Steve Johnson worked in a trade that required the ability to read and comprehend highly technical manuals, he told his fellow legislators.
“In my trade, I found a disproportionate number of young men who had high school diplomas, who were practically functionally illiterate,” he said. “It’s very important that we provide for these older students the tools they need to propel them into a highly technical future.”
The House ultimately passed the bill, which it amended to loosen some teacher licensure requirements. Between the two chambers, SF 59 received 76 ayes and 15 nays on final readings.
Personal stories
When 11-year-old Paul Pine died by suicide in 2023, his mother, Chandel Pine, initially resisted talking publicly about it. But Paul had severe reading difficulties, and the more she learned about literacy, she said, the more she realized that speaking out could help others.
Urged by her son’s former tutor, Pine testified to the Legislature. That led her into the literacy world, where she started a nonprofit that has provided dyslexia screening and support to nearly 60 students.
Many of her fellow advocates have personal stories that opened their eyes and led them into the work. Stories of children whose learning disabilities went undetected, of parents hiring costly tutors, switching schools and engaging in lawsuits against school districts.
While 58 students is an achievement, she said Friday, the bill represents an opportunity for system-wide change, which will have bigger ripples.
Megan Hesser, Pine’s former tutor, wishes the bill was stronger in some areas, but said “it’s still a huge win.”
Hesser, who began lobbying in 2020, can’t help but think about the students who suffered unnecessarily in the meantime, she said.
“How many kids have we lost and left behind in the six years it’s taken us to get here?” she asked.