Maine school districts vary widely in whether they have adopted best practices for teaching reading, a new report found, despite the state’s acknowledgement that evidence-based curricula are the best way to teach students.

A type of evidence-based curriculum focused on essential skills like phonics, vocabulary and reading comprehension, called the science of reading, has become the gold standard for teaching kids to read. But in Maine, the report says, schools are not yet consistently using materials aligned with that standard.

The study, conducted by Educate Maine, a nonprofit that advocates for career readiness through education, comes as test scores have raised concerns about reading proficiency in the state.

Maine fourth graders performed among the worst in the country on the latest national assessment, with just 26% deemed proficient. About 65% of fourth graders met state expectations in literacy last year, per the state’s standardized assessment.

“At best, more than one-third of fourth graders are failing to meet grade-level reading,” the report states. “Taken together, these assessments demonstrate that improving reading proficiency must remain one of Maine’s most pressing educational priorities.”

It concludes with the recommendation that all districts in the state use instructional materials based on the science of reading.

Maine, a local control state, does not mandate a statewide curriculum, making it an outlier in the nation. It’s up to districts, which number more than 260, to choose how they want to teach.

The report found 46 different programs being used across the state, and only slightly more than half of them are science-based reading programs. Just 18% of districts are exclusively using science-based programs, the report found, while most districts use a mix of science-based and other programs, and 15% use programs that are not considered science-based.

Eighty percent of districts use more than one reading curriculum, the report found, with some using as many as five.

Kim Russell is the director of special projects at Educate Maine, and was one of the leaders on the report. She said the research left her thinking that Maine needs leadership and direction for reading.

“Forty-six different programs across 93 different districts is a lot,” Russell said, referring to the districts that responded to the survey.

Russell and her team conducted the research between September 2025 and May 2026, and sent surveys to the superintendents of all 155 public school districts in Maine that serve elementary schoolers; the 93 districts that responded represent about 70% of elementary schools in the state. The study was prompted by the state’s test scores, and because Educate Maine was approached with an offer of funding from the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund, a philanthropic organization interested in early literacy.

The goal of the report is to provide the incoming governor and education commissioner with a roadmap for improving reading instruction, and to ask that it be made a priority.

Last October, following the state’s precipitous drop on the national standardized test, the Department of Education rolled out “back to basics” action plans for reading and math founded on the science of reading, which officials said was essential.

But those options were just that — optional resources for districts.

“Local school boards have the authority to determine the curriculum and materials that are used in their school district,” Beth Lambert, the state’s chief teaching and learning officer, said at the time. “Our role is to provide guidance, to provide professional learning, high-quality resources, to have access to those. But the local (school administrative units) are under no obligation, there is no mandate in this.”

The local control ethos has prevented Maine’s Legislature from passing mandates in the past. In 2025, lawmakers shelved a bill that would have required all districts to implement a cellphone ban on that basis. Gov. Janet Mills, however, passed one the following year through her supplemental budget.

Last month, in an interview about new state assessment scores that showed slight improvement, Commissioner of Education Pender Makin, who cautions against relying too much on standardized assessment scores as a measure of student success, said one reason they may not reflect the reality on the ground is because of hyperlocal curriculum and instruction control.

“There are wonderful and hard things, both, about that arrangement that we have,” she said.

But the Educate Maine report also contrasts Maine with other states that espouse a local control philosophy. In fact, it says, the vast majority of states, 43 of 50, have adopted legislation that requires literacy instruction be based on the science of reading, even as they consider themselves strong local control states.

Additionally, 44 states have passed legislation that requires teachers be trained in the science of reading, and 28 states have passed legislation to implement literacy coaches, who provide professional support to teachers in reading instruction. Maine is not one of them.

“Local control is great, but it can also lead to such diversity in implementation that it isn’t impactful,” Russell said.

Rep. Kelly Murphy, a Democrat from Scarborough and the House chair of the Education Committee, said Friday that she planned to meet with Russell soon to discuss sponsoring possible legislation based on the report’s recommendations.

Murphy wasn’t surprised by the finding that Maine districts use a wide variety of curricula — “With local control, it’s the nature of the beast,” she said — but she was a bit surprised by how many districts weren’t using the science of reading at all.

Statewide mandates can be an uphill battle, she said, since they require two-thirds support in the Legislature, and in most cases, if they cost money, the state has to cover it. They also can be unpopular with residents and school boards.

“But sometimes it’s worth it,” she said.

In response to a question about the Department of Education’s perspective on the report, a spokesperson nodded to Maine’s local control requirements, and referenced the back-to-basics literacy action plan as a resource for improving reading instruction.

But the spokesperson also said the department believes the next Legislature, “should consider requirements around utilizing evidence-based literacy practices and consider grant funding to support high-quality instructional materials.”

Besides the obvious value of reading to students, Russell said Maine’s literacy rates have implications for its workforce.

“Maine has a smaller and smaller class of students each and every year. Our birth rates are going down,” she said. “We need each and every child to grow up to their fullest potential, because they need to be the next workers in the workforce.”