Fwd: [LiteracyForAll] Reading First

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Susan Ohanian <susano@gmavt.net>
> Date: Tue Jul 1, 2008  9:42:15 PM US/Eastern
> To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [LiteracyForAll] Reading First
> Reply-To: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com
>
> Greg alerted me to this article, just posted on the website and
> appearing in tomorrow's paper. He calls it their Reading First obit.
> Notice our Joanne, who stood tall against the Powers, is featured for
> her prescient prediction, "Bad things will happen."
> s.
>
> By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
> WASHINGTON — Is the federal government getting out of the reading 
> business?
>
> The Senate Appropriations Committee voted last week to eliminate 
> funding
> for Reading First, the groundbreaking but controversial Bush
> administration program that has given states $1 billion a year since
> 2002 to teach low-income elementary schoolers to read. A House 
> committee
> also had voted to eliminate funding; if money is not restored before 
> the
> federal budget is approved in the fall, the program could end.
>
> Democrats in Congress say the program was an unproven magnet for
> corruption. House hearings last year focused on financial ties between
> its top advisers and major textbook publishers, who account for a large
> share of materials schools use. A U.S. Justice Department 
> investigation,
> begun last year, is still pending.
>
> But many educators say the money — about $17.7 million per state in 
> 2007
> — was a godsend, allowing them to train teachers in scientifically 
> based
> reading methods, buy quality supplies and help an estimated 1.8 million
> children learn to read.
>
> "It has been really good for many of our teachers, many of our schools
> and many of our children," says Michele Goady, Maryland's Reading First
> director.
>
> A key part of President Bush's No Child Left Behind education plan,
> Reading First was controversial even before its birth in 2002. It grew
> out of an unusual pact between policymakers and brain researchers at 
> the
> National Institutes of Health.
>
> In 2000, a congressionally appointed panel pared down reading
> instruction to five key elements — but its report omitted several, such
> as the effects of reading aloud to children, primarily because it ran
> out of time. In protest, one member, Joanne Yatvin, wrote a withering
> minority report and called the findings "unbalanced and, to some 
> extent,
> irrelevant" because they would lead educators to assume that many 
> topics
> not covered are "failed practices."
>
> As a result, she predicted, "bad things will happen."
>
> Most of the bad things that befell Reading First erupted over squabbles
> about how the Education Department handed out money. By 2005, several
> publishers snubbed by the program complained top federal advisers were
> strong-arming states to use specific textbooks and tests, in a few 
> cases
> insisting on materials the advisers had developed.
>
> "You put enough money on anything, and you've got enough people who are
> not interested in kids and not interested in education that are making
> choices," says Cindy Cupp, a Savannah, Ga., teacher and author. She
> filed two complaints with the Justice Department after learning that 
> six
> Georgia schools were funded only after they agreed to drop Cupp's
> phonics books.
>
> The Education Department's inspector general launched an investigation
> and told a House committee last year that he had made several referrals
> to the Justice Department.
>
> Early reviews of Reading First were generally positive. But a large
> study last May by the Institute of Education Sciences found Reading
> First schools had about the same test results as others. Supporters 
> said
> that was because Reading First's influence has led districts to adopt
> its materials in other schools.
>
> Through it all, Reading First has been popular locally. While it relied
> on a few textbook-based programs, not many teachers could argue with 
> the
> millions of dollars it has brought in each year. "There's just this 
> huge
> disconnect between what the people in the field think about this 
> program
> and what the leaders in Congress think," says Mike Petrilli of the
> Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He says Democrats saw a chance to attack
> Bush before the 2008 election.
>
> Education Secretary Margaret Spellings reacted angrily Tuesday to the
> "outrageous" cuts and called them "political theater."
>
> Under President Clinton, she notes, Congress put more than $300 million
> a year into reading.
>
> "Now we're going to turn back the clock, not only to pre-Bush but
> pre-Clinton (levels)," she says. "I bet it's been a long damned time
> since the federal government spent no money — zero — on reading."
>
> She predicts that after the election, lawmakers will come to their
> senses. "I hope cooler heads will prevail," she says. "If I had a 
> nickel
> for every person who said, 'Thank God for Reading First,' I'd be a
> millionaire."
>
>
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