Reading & Literacy

Will Reading First Survive?

June 23, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Looks like a House appropriations subcommittee isn’t interested in revising or strengthening Reading First, as many advocates and experts have advised. As my colleague Alyson Klein reports here, the panel, led by David Obey, one of the harshest critics of was a $1 billion-a-year program, would zero out funding in fiscal 2009.

After the 61 percent cut to RF in the fiscal ’08 budget, the strength of the program is certainly compromised. Many districts will be forced to eliminate positions, particularly the reading coaches that became a standard resource in participating schools.

But many observers believe the RF principles—the use of sound, proven instructional strategies, teaching essential skills in an organized way, and regularly gauging what students can and can’t do—are likely to endure, especially in those places where principals and veteran teachers internalized them. Certainly the number of teachers who think they can just wing it or rely on instinct to teach kids to read is dwindling. Many RF schools, however, have high turnover of both staff and students, requiring repeated and ongoing training (of teachers) and intervention (of struggling readers), both costly endeavors.

Ed. Sec. Margaret Spellings and Ed. Dept. staffers have been explaining the options for tapping other sources of federal funding for RF programs. Some states and districts are formulating plans for sustaining RF, such as Colorado, described here, and a Louisiana district that has promised to commit some $1.6 million in local funding to continue RF, according to this story in the Shreveport Times.

What other efforts are under way, on the state or local levels, to keep the program going?

A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Classroom Technology Webinar
How to Leverage Virtual Learning: Preparing Students for the Future
Hear from an expert panel how best to leverage virtual learning in your district to achieve your goals.
Content provided by Class
English-Language Learners Webinar AI and English Learners: What Teachers Need to Know
Explore the role of AI in multilingual education and its potential limitations.
Education Webinar The K-12 Leader: Data and Insights Every Marketer Needs to Know
Which topics are capturing the attention of district and school leaders? Discover how to align your content with the topics your target audience cares about most. 

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Reading & Literacy Opinion Tired of the Reading Wars? Become a Conscientious Objector
Teachers' obligation is to their students. The research combined with the knowledge of individual students should be the guide.
14 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Reading & Literacy Opinion Don’t Worry About 'Book Bans'
So-called “book bans” are a lot rarer—and more reasonable—than you might think, argue Max Eden and Jay P. Greene.
Max Eden & Jay P. Greene
5 min read
Tidy vector hand drawn background with Books, Vintage cozy elements, printed publications, volumes of literature, retro library flying objects, decor textile, wrapping paper, wallpaper,  textured pattern
Olga Kurbatova/iStock
Reading & Literacy Opinion Teachers, You Don't Need to Choose Sides in the Reading Wars
Instead of arguing over who's right, let's focus attention on expanding knowledge about unresolved instructional issues.
12 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty
Reading & Literacy Teachers College to 'Dissolve' Lucy Calkins' Reading and Writing Project
The consulting group, founded by the popular and controversial literacy icon Lucy Calkins, will soon be shutting its doors.
4 min read
090523 columbia teachers college AP BS
The exterior of Teachers College, Columbia University, which will no longer house the popular—and controversial—literacy consultancy, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.
Diane Bondareff/AP