Reading First Heads for Extinction

From Education Week, July 15, 2008: House and Senate panels decided to eliminate its funding in the fiscal 2009 budget. The Ed Money Watch blog weighs in on this decision.

Reading First Suffers Another Blow: Interim Report shows "no significant effect"

"The beleaguered Reading First program is likely to receive another round of scrutiny, as the U.S. Department of Education released an interim report on Thursday saying that the federally supported program has had no significant effect on students' reading-comprehension skills." Reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2008

Early Reading First Evaluation Report

"The report, conducted by outside researchers under contract to the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, found the program has had the most significant effect in improving classroom activities and materials, as well as teacher practices related to literacy development...
But the program appeared to have no effect on the preschoolers’ oral-language skills, social or emotional development, or phonological processing—awareness of the sounds that make up words." Education Digest, June 12, 2007.