Reading First

["Nancy Patterson" <patterna@gvsu.edu>]

I know that as middle school teachers you may not directly feel the impact of Reading First, but you certainly are seeing students who have been the victims of RF.  In 2002 NCTE came out with a position paper that questioned the merits of RF saying that it relied too heavily on scripted commercial programs and privileged certain commercial programs owned by corporations that had ties to the Bush administration.  Well, it didn't go quite that far, but if you read the position paper you can certainly see the concerns.

About a year ago the GAO announced that there were some serious flaws in RF and that it indeed privilege friends of Bush who own systematic phonics or skills based programs like Open Court and Language! (owned by McGraw Hill).  It also talked about  DIBELS.  Today I got word that Ted Kennedy has published the following report (summarized below).  The whole thing can be found at http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=3CC1E674-CB51-42C2-A4F9-90395A0DC291 

Read a summary below.  Billions of dollars have gone into Reading First.  A recent report found that RF has made little to no difference in reading abilities amongst poor children.  But the publishers and the Reading First directors have made a mint.  

It is all so very sad, and it has delayed the progress of literacy education for years.  I once thought NCLB and RF would go away when Bush left office.  But we are now finding that many states have implemented policies, standards, benchmarks, grade level expectations, whatever, that will keep NCLB around in one form or another for years to come.  

Nancy
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KENNEDY RELEASES REPORT ON READING FIRST INVESTIGATION
17 page report details abuses in program
May 9, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released a detailed report regarding the conflicts of interest found within the Reading First program. Kennedy has an ongoing investigation into the Reading First program.

Senator Kennedy said, "The findings in this report underscore the need for the Department of Education to ensure that contractors, subcontractors, and consultants are free from conflicts of interest. The goal of the Reading First program is to help students learn to read and gain the skills they need for success and a lifetime of learning. Those implementing this program and other federal education programs must put the interests of students and schools before profits and politics."

The report shows that four of the five Reading First Regional Technical Assistant directors had significant financial ties to education publishers while they held Reading First positions that required them advise and provide technical assistance to States and school districts about which reading programs to chose and how to implement them. The four individuals profiled in this report had substantial conflicts of interest that this report reveals may have improperly influenced their actions while they were under subcontract with the Department of Education.

Attached is the Report; two PDFs, (1) Exhibits 1-22 and (2) Exhibits 23-42, available upon request.


Nancy Patterson, PhD
Literacy Studies Program Chair
College of Education
Grand Valley State University 
920 Eberhard Center
301 W. Fulton
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
616-331-6226
patterna@gvsu.edu 
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna 


Nancy Patterson, PhD
Literacy Studies Program Chair
College of Education
Grand Valley State University 
920 Eberhard Center
301 W. Fulton
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
616-331-6226
patterna@gvsu.edu
http://faculty.gvsu.edu/patterna