National reading panel hits another bureaucratic snag

After several years of planning and a series of false starts, a new federal venture to review reading research has hit another bureaucratic hurdle—one that could keep it from ever getting off the ground. A planned announcement last week of the membership of the Commission on Reading Research was put on hold by the National Institute for Literacy while officials sought final approval from the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies that the institute reports to.

“The National Institute for Literacy Interagency Group has not made a formal decision about the formation of a commission to look into reading research,” Samara Yudof, the department’s press secretary, wrote in an e-mail. If such a group is formed, she added, it will have to be screened under the department’s new ethics-review procedures.

That news surprised some observers who have followed plans for the panel over the past several years. “This commission had been developed in a transparent manner; the members had been solicited in a transparent manner,” said Richard Long, the government-relations director for the Newark, Del.-based International Reading Association, which recommended several nominees for the panel. “A lot of progress had been made, and it’s unfortunate that things are once again being slowed down.” Read more in Education Week online.