Governor DeWine Announces Science of Reading Audit Results for Ohio Colleges and Universities

COLUMBUS, Ohio —Ohio Governor Mike DeWine joined Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) Chancellor Mike Duffey Tuesday to announce the results of a recent audit into educator preparation programs (EPPs) at colleges and universities across the state.

The audit was conducted to determine the extent to which college EPPs in Ohio are aligned with the Science of Reading, as required by state law.

“Decades of research tells us the Science of Reading gives students of all ability levels the best chance to become strong, independent readers,” said Governor DeWine. “Our kids only have one chance to grow up. We have an obligation to act with great urgency to make sure every future teacher going through our college programs is learning the best way to teach reading.”

CLICK ABOVE TO WATCH PRESS CONFERENCE. Pictured: Governor DeWine demonstrates which colleges and universities that were rated as being “In Alignment” for Science of Reading Audit.

In 2023, Governor DeWine worked alongside the Ohio General Assembly to require schools of all levels to become aligned with the Science of Reading. State law gave Ohio colleges and universities that educate future teachers until Jan. 1, 2025, to become fully aligned.

State law also required ODHE to lead an audit of all EPPs to ensure compliance. A review panel that included ODHE and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) together selected The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas to conduct the audits, which began on Jan. 1, 2025, and continued throughout spring semester 2025.

After a detailed review process, Governor DeWine and Chancellor Duffey released the audit results Tuesday.

The audit evaluated all 48 institutions statewide with 12-Hour Reading and Literacy Core courses. Of them, 33 programs received a final rating of “In Alignment,” five programs received a final rating of “Partial Alignment,” and 10 programs received a final rating of “Not in Alignment.” (Details provided below)

“Many colleges are excelling with their implementation of the Science of Reading. Not only will this improve their students’ job prospects, but it will also make future generations of children better readers,” said Governor DeWine. “On the other hand, the audit found that there were still several institutions that had more work to do to become fully aligned.”

With the release of these audit results, institutions have one year from today to become fully aligned with the Science of Reading.

If any institutions do not meet this deadline, state law requires the Chancellor of Higher Education to revoke approval for their reading/literacy educator preparation programs.

“We understood going in that getting all of our institutions to 100% alignment with the law would require considerable time and effort,” said Chancellor Duffey. “The good news is that we are seeing tremendous progress. Just as a teacher does not expect every student to ace the test, we did not expect our colleges to be practically perfect in every way. We are feeling positive, however, about the ability of every institution to meet the standard within the time provided by the General Assembly – one year from today.”

Chancellor Duffey speaks at Governor DeWine’s press conference to unveil results of Science of Reading Audit.

Each of the 10 institutions that received a rating of “Not in Alignment” at the time of the audit have since submitted a formal attestation to ODHE pledging that – as of today – they are now in compliance with the law.

“This is good news. But the law also requires us to be certain that this is accurate,” said Governor DeWine. “So we will be going back out to every one of these institutions in 2026 to verify that they have come into full alignment with the Science of Reading.”

Audit Results
EPPs were evaluated in two main areas:

• Best practices supporting the Science of Reading. ODHE collaborated with college and university leaders to establish 73 “audit metrics” to measure how well schools are implementing the Science of Reading.
• Any observations of banned teaching methods (e.g. “three-cueing”) which are now illegal in Ohio.

In Alignment
To be considered “In Alignment,” institutions needed to meet at least 71 out of 73 audit metrics AND have zero violations for banned teaching practices.

33 institutions received an “In Alignment” rating. They include:

1. Ashland University
2. Baldwin Wallace University
3. Bluffton University
4. Cedarville University
5. College of Wooster
6. Franciscan University of Steubenville
7. Franklin University
8. Heidelberg University
9. Hiram College
10. John Carroll University
11. Kent State University
12. Lake Erie College
13. Lourdes University
14. Malone University
15. Marietta College
16. Miami University
17. Mount St. Joseph University
18. Mount Vernon Nazarene University
19. Muskingum University
20. Ohio Northern University
21. Otterbein University
22. Shawnee State University
23. The University of Akron
24. University of Cincinnati
25. University of Dayton
26. University of Findlay
27. University of Mount Union
28. University of Rio Grande
29. Walsh University
30. Wilmington College
31. Wittenberg University
32. Xavier University
33. Youngstown State University

Partial Alignment
To be considered in “Partial Alignment,” institutions needed to meet between 50 and 70 out of 73 audit metrics AND have zero violations for banned teaching practices.

Five institutions received a “Partial Alignment” rating. They include:

1. Capital University
2. God’s Bible School & College
3. Ohio Wesleyan University
4. Ursuline College
5. Western Governors University

Not in Alignment
All 10 institutions considered “Not in Alignment” were rated in this category for having one or more violations for banned teaching practices. Institutions could have also been rated in this category for meeting fewer than 50 metrics, although there were no instances of that occurring.

10 institutions received a “Not in Alignment” rating. They include:

1. Bowling Green State University
2. Central State University
3. Cleveland State University
4. Defiance College
5. Ohio Christian University
6. Ohio Dominican University
7. Ohio University
8. The Ohio State University
9. The University of Toledo
10. Wright State University