[EDLING:578] Reading First "Dramatically" Improves Students' Reading Skills

[Francis M Hult]

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND EXTRA CREDT
http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/extracredit/index.html

January 24, 2005

Mesa, Arizona: Reading First "Dramatically" Improves Students' Reading
Skills

No Child Left Behind's Reading First program provides grants to help
schools and districts improve children's reading achievement through
scientifically proven methods of instruction. The following are excerpts
from a recent article in The Arizona Republic highlighting how students at
a Mesa, AZ elementary school are benefiting from Reading First:

"Student scores on reading assessments have improved dramatically at one of
the first Mesa elementary schools to implement the federally funded Reading
First program. Less than 25 percent of 148 first-graders met the benchmark
on a national reading test at Lowell Elementary School last year, and
nearly half the students needed intensive instruction. This year, about
half the students met the benchmark as second-graders.

"Administrators and teachers in the state's largest school district credit
much of the improvement to Reading First. The program provides federal
dollars for schools with low-income students who have low test scores and
allows teachers to give young elementary school students 90 minutes of
intensive reading instruction each day. Staff members can increase that
instruction time by an additional hour for those students who need it most.

"That might sound like a lot of time to spend on one subject - it's nearly
half the school day - but teachers like Patty Henry say the commitment is
worth it. The 19-year Lowell veteran can see the improvement in her
second-grade class. 'It's what these kids at this type of school need
because the reading they get is here,' Henry said.

"More than 90 percent of Lowell's students are Hispanic, and many have
parents who don't speak English, which makes reading at home difficult,
Henry said. 'When it has to happen at school, we need to put more time into
it,' she said.

"That time has paid off, according to student performance on the Dynamic
Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test. It's still a work in
progress, school reading coach Renee Parker stressed, but the program is
moving students in the right direction to succeed on yearly assessments and
ultimately on the AIMS [Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards] test."


The complete text of this article is available online at:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0118readingfirstrecap.html

NCLB Extra Credit provides a regular look at the No Child Left Behind Act,
President Bush's landmark education reform initiative passed with
bipartisan support in Congress. For more information, contact the U.S.
Department of Education at (202) 401-1576.