Latest 'Reading First' Study Reports Limited Benefits

The basic principles of the Reading First program have been widely implemented in participating schools, but those changes have resulted in limited student-achievement gains, concludes the final implementation report on the federal initiative released late last week by the U.S. Department of Education.

The report describes the extent of the program’s reach to schools not getting Reading First funds. They have reported adopting many of the same practices as participating schools, such as an extended reading block, scientifically based instructional materials, professional development, and use of assessment data.

But the schools that shared in the $1 billion in annual federal grants tended to incorporate those tenets more...