Young readers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties show signs of improvement with the help of the same federal program that recently came under fire for alleged ineffectiveness.
The program, called Reading First, is a piece of the 2002 No Child Left Behind legislation that aims intense reading curricula and strategies at kindergartners through third-graders at select low-performing schools.
The state has received almost $50 million since 2004 to purchase curricula tailored to the program, and to provide extra support to teachers and students in Reading First schools.
In the nine Montgomery and Prince George’s schools using Reading First, reading scores on state assessments have improved dramatically.
Jimmy Sweeney, principal of Gaithersburg’s Rosemont Elementary, saw 16 percent of his third-graders score in the top category of the state’s reading test last year, up from just 5 percent of the school’s third-graders in 2004, before the program was started.
“We have seen the results in our school, and the teachers are happy and have seen the results as well,” Sweeney said.
A recent U.S. Department of Education study, however, showed Reading First’s effects on comprehension scores to be insignificant, even over several years using the
program.
Many experts worry that the program — which has cost the nation roughly $6 billion so far — focuses too hard on letters and sounds, and not hard enough on ideas.
Reading First helps students “learn how to pronounce the letters on the page, and how to pull sounds apart, and word fluency — but none of those things have to do with [comprehension],” said Marilyn Chambliss, a University of Maryland reading education professor.
Chambliss added, however, that the program had many positives, including the money provided to add teachers for struggling students.
Maryland officials, including Sweeney, say comprehension is an integral part of the state’s Reading First strategies.
“We’re not having any problems in Maryland with Reading First,” said Michele Goady, who directs the state’s program. “We’re going to stay the course, do what we’re doing and more of it.”
