Reading First cuts threaten neediest students

While most of her class was working on assignments related to the letter Z, Stacy Niebel sat cross-legged on a brightly colored carpet, reading a story about the weather with five of her kindergartners. She was less than an hour into a required 90-minute block of time teachers at William Ford Elementary School in Dearborn are required to devote daily to reading and writing. It is part of Reading First, a federal initiative aimed at getting kids to read by the end of third grade.

The program serves about 38,600 students in 158 Michigan schools. And while it has been credited with improving literacy at this school and thousands of others across the United States, Reading First is facing a precarious future because Congress has slashed 61% of the program’s funding for the 2008-09 school year. The loss threatens to shatter the gains made by the neediest students, which helped prepare them for high-stakes testing important to them and the schools. Read more in The Detroit Free Press online.