Oklahoma · Policy & Funding

Oklahoma’s Math Achievement Act creates K-5 screening, office, and $7.5M funding model

The law requires universal math screening for grades 2-5 three times per year, with intervention plans for students below the 30th percentile, and allocates funds through a weighted formula.

School Decision NewsroomAugust 18, 2026

Oklahoma’s SB 1360, which rewrites the Oklahoma Math Achievement and Proficiency Act, takes effect for the 2026-2027 school year. It creates an Office of Mathematics Improvement inside the State Department of Education, requires universal screening in grades 2-5 three times per year, and mandates an Individualized Math Intervention Plan for any student scoring below the 30th percentile within 30 days of completing the screener. The legislature appropriated $7.5 million through HB 4030, disbursed under a weighted formula: at least 40 percent for base Tier 1 support, at least 30 percent for Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention, and up to 30 percent for math improvement incentives based on measurable student gains.

$7.5 millionAppropriated for the Oklahoma Math Achievement and Proficiency Act program through HB 4030 for the 2026-2027 school year. [3]

How the math act compares to the reading model

The new law closely mirrors Oklahoma’s Strong Readers Act, which established a multi-tiered system of support for K-3 reading. Both require three screenings per year, a 30-day timeline for intervention plans, and parent-inclusive proficiency teams. But the reading act uses more specific percentile cutoffs: four tiers divided at the 40th, 26th, 11th, and 1st percentiles. The math act sets a single threshold at the 30th percentile. The reading law also bans three-cueing and balanced literacy instruction; the math law includes no equivalent prohibition on pedagogical methods. The strong Readers Act, enacted in 2024 and amended in 2025, is the direct structural model for the math law, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s implementation guide.

SB 1360 replaced an earlier version of the math proficiency framework, SB 140 (2025), which had a per-student allocation formula and different spending mandates. The 2026 rewrite shifted to the 40/30/30 weighted split, created the Office of Mathematics Improvement, removed professional-development spending requirements, and moved to a single combined math-and-reading screening instrument for the 2027-2028 school year.

What the research says

The Oklahoma State Department of Education’s implementation guide for the Math Proficiency Act defines the multi-tiered system of support framework as having four components: screening, tiered instruction, progress monitoring, and data-based decision-making. It describes three tiers: Tier 1 core for all students, Tier 2 targeted supplemental, and Tier 3 intensive intervention. The guide references the Oklahoma MTSS Introductory Guide and the IES practice guide on Response to Intervention for reading as conceptual foundations. It does not cite outcome studies specific to the math model. The document is an implementation guide, not an evaluation, and its strength is mixed.

Analysis

By the School Decision Newsroom, written after the reporting above was filed.

$7.5 million works out to roughly $36 per student in grades 2-5.

Oklahoma enrolled 697,358 public school students in fall 2024. Grades 2-5 account for roughly 207,000 of them. Spread across that population, $7.5 million is about $36 per child. The 40 percent base allocation for Tier 1 core instruction comes to approximately $14 per student. The 30 percent reserved for Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention, spread across the roughly 62,000 students who would score below the 30th percentile, is about $36 per struggling child. The remaining 30 percent goes to incentive payments for districts showing measurable gains. These sums can cover screening tools but leave thin margins for the intensive intervention the law requires.

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Mississippi passed the same law in 2025. Neither state has results yet.

Mississippi's HB 1626, signed in 2025, created a Mathematics Proficiency and Intervention Act with the same architecture as Oklahoma's: universal screening three times per year, MTSS tiers, intervention plans within 60 days, all modeled on its own reading law. Oklahoma's closest internal benchmark is its reading framework. The 2023-2024 state report shows the share of K-3 students at risk for reading difficulty fell from 46.9 percent at the start of the year to 36.6 percent by year's end, a 10.3 percentage point drop. That is one year of descriptive data from the existing reading framework, not a controlled evaluation, and the Strong Readers Act itself took effect the same year.

[7][8]

Districts must screen in 2026-2027 but pick their own tools to do it.

The SB 1360 rewrite removed screening instrument selection requirements and usage requirements, and the combined math-and-reading screening instrument is not mandated until 2027-2028. For the 2026-2027 launch year, districts must screen three times but will choose their own instruments without a state-approved list. A percentile score on one screener is not equivalent to the same percentile on another, so the 30th percentile threshold will mean different things in different districts until the state standardizes. A parent whose child enters second grade in fall 2026 should ask the district which screener it adopted.

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Sources

Oklahoma Legislature / OSCN. Enrolled Senate Bill No. 1360 — Mathematics instruction View
Oklahoma State Department of Education. Implementation Guide — Math Proficiency Act View
NonDoc. Literacy, numeracy, recess and teacher pay among OklaEd initiatives moving forward View
Oklahoma State Department of Education. Strong Readers Act — 2025 Presentation (MTSS tiers and percentile cutoffs) View
Oklahoma Legislature. Bill Information — SB 1360 (2026 Regular Session) View
Oklahoma Watch. Oklahoma Public School Enrollment: What the Latest Data Tells Us View
Mississippi Legislature. House Bill 1626 — Mathematics Proficiency and Intervention Act View
Oklahoma State Department of Education. Governor's Report — Reading Sufficiency Act Study 2023-2024 View