Study Questions 'No Child' Act's Reading Plan; "cronyism first, reading skills last"

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post, Page One

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008; Page A01

Students enrolled in a $6 billion federal reading program that is at the heart of the No Child Left Behind law are not reading any better than those who don't participate, according to a U.S. government report.

The study released yesterday by the Department of Education's research arm found that students in schools that use Reading First, which provides grants to improve elementary school reading, scored about the same on comprehension tests as their peers who attended schools that did not receive program money.

The conclusion is likely to reignite the longstanding "reading wars." Critics say that Reading First places too much emphasis on explicit phonics instruction and doesn't do enough to foster understanding.

Among Democrats on Capitol Hill, the report also revived allegations of conflicts of interest and mismanagement. Federal investigators have found that some people who helped oversee the program had financial ties to publishers of Reading First materials.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) yesterday called Reading First a "failure." Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate education committee, said the administration "put cronyism first and the reading skills of our children last."...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050101399.html?nav=most_emailed

[truthisfreedom]

1. The article doesn't say who, exactly, is profiting from "Reading First."

So who is behind it? Neil Bush?

[Tempest]

3. Cronyism at its worse

A billion-dollar-a-year federal reading program that ran into scathing criticism over conflicts of interest now has a new one: The government contractor that set up the program for the Education Department is also part of the team hired to evaluate it…. RMC Research Corp. was the contractor hired to establish and implement the program starting in 2002, under three contracts worth about $40 million…. RMC failed to keep the program free of conflicts of interest. For example, RMC did not screen subcontractors for relationships with publishers of reading programs.

http://archive.edbizbuzz.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/2/2854160.html

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I think we have heard a connection. Maybe someone recalls...

the details of Neil's involvement.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. See seafan's informative post here --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3294059&mesg_id=3294166

[barbtries]

14. exactly what i was thinking

recalling after katrina when the mother bush made a donation and stipulated that the money had to go to her son. they are a collective piece of work all right.

[ladywnch]

2. I don't know about reading first, but I do know that my step kids

have been allowed to read things like "Sargent Frog" (and other animee books) series which is nothing more than a glorified comic book for their reading assignments. In fact, flat out comic books have been acceptable. As long as they read 30 minutes a day, no one cares what they read. Can you imagine doing 'book reports' on comic books?!!!! Both kids have horrible vocabularies and, IMO, lousy comprehension. This whole NCLB farce is pure crap and should be scrapped.

[Sabriel]

5. For one thing, it de-professionalizes the classroom teacher

Reading First "specifies that teachers' classroom instructional decisions must be informed by scientifically based reading research."

What this means is that teacher-generated research (known as self-study or action research) is overlooked, along with small-group or single-subject studies. If it ain't quantitative, forget it.

This approach also discounts any use of whole-language approaches and focuses instead on phonics-based instruction, as the piece above mentions.

My assumption is that some of the canned "reading programs" that districts implement are getting rich off the Reading First funds. Here are a couple of pieces on where the money leads (McGraw Hill and Bush Pioneer Randy Best).

http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=17185

http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/texasScam.asp

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Thanks for this info, Sabriel! nt

[LuckyLib]

6. Yes indeed. Follow the money.

[pattmarty]

7. This "no child's behind" and the shitty Medicare drug program....

.........have to be some of the first things a Dem president should get rid of Jan 21st.

[seafan]

9. Lots more info here

George W. Bush (NCLB) laundered to Jeb's! Florida ----> Neil's *educational software* for sale.....


The Bush Family 'Reading First' Scam-- George, Jeb, Neil and Ma Bush


Your thread, DeepModem Mom, from November 7, 2007

[DeepModem Mom]

10. There you go! There's the Bush family connection documented. Thanks, seafan! nt

[LeftyMom]

12. Conservatives and fundamentalists have had a weird anti-whole language obsession for a long time.

They have a real boner for obsessively incremental phonics instruction, and for reasons I'm not quite sure of tend to regard anything less as some sort of moral evil. I think it appeals to their desire to take all the fun out of reading (or anything else.) My inner conspiracy theorist thinks years of boring phonics lessons are a great way to create a population that would sooner roll around on broken glass than read a book, and that such a population is the intended effect, and not a failure of the approach.

So yeah, I'm not terribly surprised they stacked the deck to deny funding to any schools using anything that even whiffed of whole language.

The stupid thing is, most kids don't need a reading program. They need access to books, somebody to read them to them, and time to puzzle out the mystery of turning those squiggles on the page into sounds. They don't need somebody acting like it's more complicated than building a space shuttle using spare parts from small kitchen appliances, any more than most kids need some crazily expensive program to learn to walk, catch a ball or use the toilet, and like any of those things, trying to teach a simple task in a complicated manner would just fuck the whole thing up.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Very interesting post, LeftyMom -- thanks! nt

[LuckyLib]

16. Right on target. Here are two books that lay it out very well. Some of us are on to them!

-- Resisting Reading Mandates: How to Triumph with the Truth by Elaine M. Garan
-- Beginning to Read and the Spin Doctors of Science: The Political Campaign to Change America's Mind About How Children Learn to Read by Denny Taylor

[DeepModem Mom]

17. Thanks, CLW! nt

[Canuckistanian]

15. Kennedy shouldn't have gotten suckered into this

I know, I know, he was a co-sponsor, I believe.

And he should have screamed to the high heavens when NCLB had it's funding drastically cut.

But then again, that was "early days", before the FULL realization that this administration was TOTALLY corrupt.

[OneBlueSky]

18. yet another money channel from the U.S. Treasury to the Bush family . . .

they and their cronies have made the Treasury their personal ATM . . .