U.S. Senate Education Leaders Seek Investigation Into Reading First Program

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate education committee have asked the watchdog arm of Congress to investigate the Reading First program.

The request to the Government Accountability Office follows allegations that federal officials and their agents may have steered program contracts to favored publishers and consultants, and complaints that the program has not adhered to the principles of scientific evidence outlined in federal law.

It also comes on the heels of at least three requests to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Education this past summer to scrutinize the implementation of the $1 billion-a-year reading initiative...