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I get to pretend to be smart on the days I read Alexander Russo's "Around the Blogs" and "Big Stories of the Day" posts. His blog is the place I go when I need a quick fix on education news.

Today, Russo's "Around the Blogs" links to David Hoff's post on the markup of the FY 2009 appropriations bill for Labor-HHS-Ed, where I learned Reading First had been zeroed out. Big news, though probably not a surprise to the people who track this stuff closely.

In Rep. Obey's statement on the bill, he notes:

The bill does not continue funding for the Reading First program, which has been plagued with mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and cronyism as documented by the Department of Education Inspector General. Moreover, a scientifically rigorous study released by Department of Education in May 2008 found that the program has had no discernable impact on student reading performance.

Let the reading wars begin. Again.

Posted by John on June 19, 2008 02:28 PM | Permalink

Comments

I am the Director of one of the nation's largest adult literacy programs and a consultant to urban school systems. What I am ghoing to say is informed by these experiences.

Reading First failed not because of cronyism (although it may have existed) but because children from low literacy households (which can be as many as 40% of urban children) come to Kindergarten so far behind their middle class peers in terms of reading readiness that they simply cannot learn apace in a classroom setting.

This means that for many/most of these children the race is lost by the first grade. The national data show it: the longer children from low literacy households stay in school the further they fall behind their peers from literate households.

The implication of this fact is that more reading related resources should be directed to the social service agencies and day care centers that serve the nation's poor children. These resources may have to come from the K-12 industry.

But it is crtical that those resource be applied in one-to-one reading (rather than group reading) as only the fomer can close the reading readiness gap for children from low literacy households.

Posted by: Jim Funk | June 21, 2008 09:49 AM

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The NCLB Blog was established by the AFT as a forum where public education advocates, policymakers and others can exchange information and express their opinions on NCLB and related issues. The views expressed here are not the official views of the AFT or any of its affiliates. All claims otherwise would violate the spirit and purpose of the blog. © American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. All rights reserved. Photographs and illustrations cannot be used without permission of the AFT.