Increasingly alarmed by instructional mandates more founded on journalistic rhetoric and popular opinion than on research findings or practitioner expertise, researchers gathered survey data from teachers to better understand the status of K-2 phonics instruction. Data demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of these K-2 teachers teach phonics,…

With the onset and implementation of No Child Left Behind legislation almost two decades ago, coupled with declining performance by U.S. students compared with other developed countries, public education in our country has been under constant scrutiny from all fronts and continues to be there today. Much of the recent emphasis in educational…

Urban legends are plausible stories--told as truths--that revolve around the complexities and challenges of modern life. Sociologists have not managed to pin down exactly how and why these stories get started, but they are clearly spread by word of mouth and there is usually a grain of truth in them (and sometimes, as it turns out in the case of…

This article explores some of the deficits in our educational system in regard to non-hearing students. It has become agonizingly clear that non-hearing students are being left out of the gallant sweep to enrich our children's educations. The big five areas of literacy, at best, present unique challenges for non-hearing students and, in some…

Mandates such as No Child Left Behind (2001) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) shifted the emphasis of instruction to include skills that access the general curriculum for students with moderate to severe intellectual disability. The purpose of this study was to describe changes in literacy instruction of teachers…

As schools attempt to address the needs of an ever more diverse student population, many have turned to intensive interventions to improve reading performance. Reading First grants from the United States Department of Education encouraged schools to implement evidence-based instructional practices in elementary schools. However, for many schools,…

"Ghosts of No Child Left Behind" politically situates curriculum within a historically and critically informed context, to understand the structural forces that have contributed to the creation of a population of adolescents who read below a third grade level. The book then proposes a reconceptualization of literacy curriculum within a…

Data from instruments which are technically adequate and which inform instruction are not only considered best practice, but are legally mandated by laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and No Child Left Behind. The Phonics Diagnostic Inventory (PDI) was designed to assess students' proficiency with specific…

In this study, we examined 56 first-grade struggling readers' phonics and reading achievement in classrooms served by SRA Reading Mastery, a scripted model of early reading instruction against the achievement of 52 first-grade struggling readers in classrooms served by one of four other, non-scripted reading models. We also studied the…

The No Child Let Behind Act of 2001 created the Reading First program to help ensure that all students could read at or above grade level by the end of grade 3. The program promotes practices recommended by the National Reading Panel for early reading instruction, highlighting five essential components of reading instruction. The program invested…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and its Reading First provisions are an attempt to close the academic achievement gap between mainstream Americans and American Indian/Alaska Native and other ethnic minority groups who have a history of below average academic achievement. This article gives evidence that despite its laudable goals,…

A component of the "No Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB) (PL 107-110) is its emphasis on the importance of systematic and explicit instruction in early reading using practices that are grounded in scientific research. The Reading First legislation (Title I, Part B, Subpart 1) within NCLB is designed to support state and local education…

Due to the increased demands for accountability with the passage of the No Child Left Behind legislation signed in 2002 by President Bush, schools are required to use reading strategies and programs that are supported by scientific research. In Arizona state statute, ARS 15-704, the law outlines the requirements for Arizona school districts to…

This article reviews the literature and presents data from a study that examined the effects of professional development in scientifically based reading instruction on teacher knowledge and student reading outcomes. The experimental group consisted of four first- and second-grade teachers and their students (n = 33). Three control teachers and…

As a result of the Reading First Program of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the view of reading has narrowed. Individual state's Reading First professional development programs, and hence reading teachers across the United States, have spent the six years since the funding of the program in 2002 focusing beginning and developmental reading on…