Reading words and developing larger vocabularies are critical parts of reading proficiency, but these checkpoints do not have significance until young students grasp the meaning behind words. While teachers and the school culture can improve early reading proficiency, legislatures and state education agencies can support such efforts by implementing systemic, replicable models for schools to use. Forty years of well-meaning state and national reading initiatives have not produced significantly higher student mastery. States have developed systemic plans to improve early reading proficiency, but translating these plans into actionable strategies has proven to be the real challenge. This paper provides a first-of-its-kind state policy roadmap. Such a roadmap, when combined with authoritative state leadership, can: (1) Drive effective program design and implementation; (2) Improve practice by strengthening classroom instruction, student assessments, and alternative interventions; (3) Strengthen curricular alignment across the P-3 spectrum; (4) Create systemic solutions, not just results; and (5) Engage stakeholders, including state leaders, teacher prep institutions, educators, students, and families in continuous improvement. This state policy roadmap uses data, research, and state policy examples to illustrate the importance of both system supports and the culture of schools and classrooms--and how each complements and relies on the other. The authors recognize that most states have already journeyed down this road--or are currently traveling down the road--but improving reading performance is one of those problems for which solutions will never be perfect, nor work for everyone. This is a tool to help review and revise policies that will make the journey more successful. Appended are: (1) State Policy Excerpts; and (2) Sample Tools for Screening and Progress Monitoring. (Contains 6 online resources.)