Reading First is changing instruction and boosting test scores in a number of states, writes Shepard Barbash in Education Next.
Reading First is controversial because it is prescriptive. . . . Navigating among conservatives who oppose intrusive government, liberals who oppose President Bush, educators who guard their independence, and commercial interests who guard their market share, the law’s framers and program leadership sought to leverage the power of the federal government to attack a complex pedagogical problem that the federal government was never designed to solve: illiteracy caused by faulty teaching.
State education officials are becoming instructional leaders, writes Flypaper.
It’s a prescriptive, top-down, micro-managy program that states and districts love. Wonders never cease.
Funding has been cut dramatically. It’s not clear whether the changes in reading instruction will continue or fade away.
I assume that Barbash’s article went to press before the recent study on Reading First came out?
The states Barbash looked at were not included in the interim report so the results are not inconsistent.
So it’ll be interesting to see further evaluations of Reading First to reconcile these claims.