Teach42

Like him or loathe him, you can always guarantee that Gary Stager will make you think. In his most recent post, he has opened my eyes to issues that I have to admit I was woefully ignorant of, namely the recently released results of a study on the Impact of Reading First. To summarize it would do it a great disservice, so I recommend you go there and read it yourself.

A couple of quotes tho.

The recent report concludes, “Reading First did not improve students’ reading comprehension… The program did not increase the percentages of students in grades one, two or three whose reading comprehension scores were at or above grade level.” In other words, a $6 billion federal program spending had no positive impact. Additionally, local school districts have made inestimable investments to support Reading First.

The failure of Reading First represents more than a course correction for a well-intentioned attempt to benefit the nation’s children. Reading First was rife with politics, contempt for professional educators and conflicts of interest from the outset. It is particularly ironic that an administration insistent that every classroom practice must adhere to “scientifically-based research,” to the exclusion of research it did not like, continues to insist that Reading First should be the law of the land, despite its own evidence to the contrary.

Well worth taking the time to read.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Enable CommentLuv?
If you have supplied a blog in the URL above, it will include a link to your most recent blog post.