Fwd: [eddra] READING FIRST

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: mbsolomon@aol.com

  Date: Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:20:49 PM US/Pacific

  To: eddra@yahoogroups.com

  Subject: [eddra] READING FIRST

  0000,0000,0000READING FIRST

  Representative George Miller, Chair of the House Education and Labor
  Committee held headings on the U.S. Department of Education’s billion-dollar
  per year Reading First program today (Friday, April 20, 2007). It was
  stunning. The hearing uncovered rampant conflicts of interest by at least
  four people, including the program administrator, who were instrumental in
  creating the criteria for funding and approving and disapproving state
  applications under the program. These same people, with proprietary interests
  which have already profited by over $2 million (and these royalties will
  continue into the future) were part of a panel which bullied states into
  using the same products which produced these profits. The Department of
  Education pushed the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills
  (DIBELS) as the preferred---if not the exclusive, allowable---evaluation
  mechanism. It was tailored by Roland Good, one of the panel members, at the
  University of Oregon expressly to be used in Reading First. Good stated that
  he had already received over $1 million in royalties.

  As an example of apparent program corruption, the state of Kentucky’s
  application for Reading First funding was rejected multiple times until
  Kentucky finally relented and agreed to use DIBELS as its evaluation
  mechanism. 

  Chairman Miller blasted the DOE administrator of the Reading First program
  for purposely prostituting Reading First for his own ends and those of others
  to the exclusion of a balanced evaluation panel, in direct contradiction to
  the law. Miller called the administrator's actions criminal and threatened
  possible criminal referrals.

  "The U.S. Department of Education Office of the Inspector General’s report of
  the Reading First Program’s Grant Application Process reveals a pattern of
  corruption and mismanagement that is an insult to everyone who takes literacy
  education seriously.  It tells a story of how individuals in powerful
  positions manipulated the law to enforce a formulaic version of reading
  instruction skewed by their own view of scientifically based reading
  research.

  The report reveals that during the crucial implementation years of the
  Reading First program, high-level Department of Education officials created
  guidelines that undermined the very principles of evidence-based
  decision-making.  They held states to implementation guidelines not
  established under No Child Left Behind; they stacked grant review panels with
  people sympathetic to their own view of literacy learning and, oftentimes,
  with direct ties to the same commercial programs they recommended; and they
  took charge of reporting review comments back to state education agency
  applicants themselves rather than having the review panels do so."

  An important point: The entire House Education Committee seems to believe
  that Reading First is a very successful program.  As indications of success,
  ranking member Howard McKeon cited 14% to 16% improvements in reading scores
  (he didn't say what scores)  in localities where Reading First is
  implemented. The Committee claims that will take steps to eliminate future
  conflicts of interest. The video of the hearing might be on the C-Span web
  site tomorrow.

  But there are participants in EDDRA that surely have opinions on how to
  improve Reading First, and if so, Miller’s committee has invited public
  comments that might help improve the program. You can contact Representative
  Miller at:

  George.Miller@mail.house.gov0000,0000,0000

   or

  Representative George Miller

  2205 Rayburn House Office Building

  Washington, DC 20515

  202-225-2095

  Thanks…..Marty