Alabama Literacy Rates.

Alabama’s drop to dead last in the nation in math and near last in reading is being greeted as a call to arms for state educators, as Alabama officials talk of refocusing efforts on early student learning.

“I am heartbroken for Alabama,” former state Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton said. “We must unite and become reinvigorated on teaching reading and math to every student beginning as early as possible.”

Morton served as the state’s top education official during the time when Alabama’s fourth-grade reading scores reached the national average for the first time. All of those gains were erased with this year’s results.