Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The research does not support these claims. It is highly likely that the "28 year high," which refers to scores on national reading tests (the NAEP test), is due to increases that happened before NCLB was implemented, and the gap between children from high and low income families remains.  In addition, NCLB has not had any influence on scores on tests given by individual states (see 6 below).  The narrowing of the curriculum described in the Center of Education Policy report has not increased reading proficiency.

The real reading problem in the US is that government officials do not read the research. Let me help out with a reading list:

1. "The 16th Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education," by Gerald W. Bracey, published in the October 2006 Phi Delta Kappan.
   
2. "Selling NCLB: Would You Buy a Used Law From This Woman?," by James Crawford, available at www.elladvocates.org
   
3. "Did Reading First Work?," by S. Krashen
   
4. "Tracking Achievement Gaps and Assessing the Impact of NCLB on the Gaps: An In-Depth Look Into National and State Reading and Math Outcome Trends," by Jaekyung Lee, published in 2006 by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.
   
5. "Is the No Child Left Behind Act Working? The Reliability of How States Track Achievement," by Bruce Fuller, Kathryn Gesicki, Erin Kang, and Joseph Wright, published in 2006 by Policy Analysis for California Education, at the University of California, Berkeley.
   
6. "NCLB: No Impact on State Fourth Grade Reading Test Scores," By S. Krashen

3 and 6 available at www. districtionadministration.c om/pulse