Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The most recent report, by Bruce Fuller and colleagues, was widely publicized and appears in Educational Researcher, a major professional journal. Fuller and colleagues concluded  that "earlier test score growth in reading has largely faded since the enactment of NCLB" and "progress seen in the 1990's in narrowing achievement gaps has largely disappeared in the post-NCLB era."

This is an amazing result: Students in Reading First, the reading component of NCLB, get much more instruction, an extra 100 minutes per week, or an extra semester every two years.  The research shows that this is not helping.  Even if Reading First were only mildly effective, we would see at least some improvement.

The real literacy crisis in the US is the fact that newspaper writers are not doing their homework.

Other studies concluding that NCLB has not worked:

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/nclb/s

pellings2.html.
3. "Did Reading First Work?," by Stephen Krashen, http://www.districtadminist ration.com/pulse/commentpos t.aspx?news=no&postid=1 7349

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. "NCLB: No Impact on State Fourth Grade Reading Test Scores," By Stephen Krashen http://www.districtadminist

ration.com/pulse/commentpos t.aspx?news=no&postid=1 9497