A study of the NCLB Reading First program found that teachers were spending more time on reading instruction but that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between those schools that used the program and those that didn't.
See interim report here.
Relate Articles:
Washington Post: "Billions for an Inside Game on Reading"
NCTE Elementary Section: "Reading First Called 'Ineffective.'"
Reading First: The Naked Truth
Gary Stager at Huffington Post: The Surge Against First Graders
What do you think? Are there any lessons to be learned here?
Whenever I read this, I remember that reading has got to be the hardest thing to teach. You can say the words out loud but internalizing their meaning is huge. I feel as a 27 year old I am still finetuning my reading skills.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I can think to get better at reading is to practice it, which is tough because as a society, we're reading less and less... This is a tough problem to figure out!