Massive Funding Cuts to ‘Reading First’ Generate Worries for Struggling Schools

Read comments by Dr. Stephen Krashen at the end. He provides data that provides an important corrective to the inadequate analysis on the Reading First Oregon data. Ed Week should hire him in order to improve their own coverage of these issues! -Angela

Massive Funding Cuts to ‘Reading First’ Generate Worries for Struggling Schools
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

The reading coaches, professional-development programs, and instructional materials that are the cornerstones of the Reading First program and are credited with improving instruction in struggling schools may be threatened by a deep cut included in the 2008 federal budget, officials and observers say.
The reduction of more than 60 percent—from nearly $1 billion each year since the program was rolled out in 2002 to $393 million for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1—will likely inhibit further improvements and test the sustainability of the changes Reading First has fostered over the past six years. The cut is part of an omnibus spending bill President Bush signed into law last month.

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