Reading First: A Critical Policy Analysis.

Abstract

From February 20 to 22, 2002, over 100 state-level educational administrators gathered in Washington, D.C., to learn about a new funding initiative from the U.S. Department of Education to improve reading achieve ment. During the first hour of the meeting, the audience watched a video that featured translucent images of the American flag, rippling in the wind, superimposed over pictures of young children reading aloud. The powerful images, which intertwined patriotism with classroom in struction of reading, were punctuated by rousing music and the words of the male narrator, who told the viewers that freedom is threatened when so many are not learn ing to read. While watching this video I began to wonder: With such high-stakes discourse and ideology at work, how was the federal government defining reading? What was in cluded and not included in that definition, and what infor mation would be supplied to this group of state bureaucrats, mostly administrators and specialists? How would this information both support and constrain them in shaping literacy policy and practice in their states? As a state reading specialist, I was invited to attend this three-day Reading Leadership Academy, one of three sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education in early 2002. What I heard, read, and saw during these sessions forms the basis for the viewpoints expressed in this dis course and critical policy analysis of the Reading First Initiative, part of the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (http://www.ed.gov/offices/ OESE/readingfirst).

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