69传媒

69传媒 & Literacy

Complaint Filed Against 69传媒 Initiative

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo 鈥 June 21, 2005 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

The Success for All Foundation has asked the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Education to investigate the $1 billion-a-year federal 69传媒 First program for alleged mismanagement and seeming preferential treatment of a handful of consultants and products.

BRIC ARCHIVE

鈥淲e believe that the federal government enabled a small group of individuals to direct significant federal resources to a small group of companies, thus both restricting our ability to trade and subverting the explicit intent and language of the 69传媒 First statute,鈥 the complaint submitted May 27 by Success for All founder Robert E. Slavin says.

While Mr. Slavin calls the 69传媒 First legislation 鈥渟ound鈥 and 鈥渨ell intentioned,鈥 he contends in the complaint that 鈥渢he program itself has been badly mismanaged, and as a result, many fewer children are likely to experience reading success.鈥

Success for All, developed in 1987, is aimed at preventing and remedying reading problems in the early grades through a schoolwide improvement approach. It is used in 1,100 schools in 46 states.

Research-Based

The nonprofit program has perhaps the most extensive research base of any reading program, with more than 50 experimental-control studies. Last month, a federal study found it to be effective in raising reading achievement. (鈥淟ong-Awaited Study Shows 鈥楽uccess for All鈥 Gains,鈥 May 11, 2005.)

Despite such scientific evidence鈥攚hich is a core tenet of the 69传媒 First legislation鈥擲uccess for All, based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, has struggled to maintain its hold in schools that applied for federal reading grants under the 3-year-old initiative. While 200 schools signed on in 2001鈥攖he year before the first distribution of 69传媒 First money鈥攁nd the foundation added staff members to support those schools, participation has slipped by several hundred schools over the last couple of years. Only five 69传媒 First schools are new to the Success for All program.

Mr. Slavin said that school officials around the country have told him they felt pressure from state officials and federal reviewers to drop Success for All in order to qualify for 69传媒 First funds, even though the legislation does not require or prohibit any specific texts. The foundation has had to lay off some 300 staff members since 69传媒 First took effect.

The complaint to the inspector general charges that the 69传媒 First program, which is planning to distribute $6 billion over six years, has promoted a narrow definition of 鈥渟cientifically based research,鈥 encourages the use of basal textbooks by big publishers, requires an unscientific and untested instructional model, and relies on the work of consultants with ties to the commercial products that are being used by participating schools and districts.

鈥淲e really believe in what we are doing, and we believe in the power of research to really produce change in reading instruction,鈥 Mr. Slavin said in an interview here last week. 鈥淸69传媒 First] is disassembling, tearing down, not only our program but that concept.鈥

Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the Education Department, would not comment on the complaint.

Criticism Widespread

The International 69传媒 Association, based in Newark-Del., and the Washington-based Association of American Publishers have received numerous complaints similar to those outlined in the one submitted to the inspector general.

In 2002, for example, the AAP complained to federal education officials of a widespread perception that states selecting certain reading programs would be more likely to win the grants. Then-Secretary of Education Rod Paige issued a statement saying no approved list of programs or products existed. But the complaints from publishers and educators have continued.

鈥淭he way the implementation proceeded, it was, in fact, a boon for publishers, and a select group of publishers, it seems,鈥 said IRA President Richard A. Allington. He has been critical of what he sees as conflicts of interest in the use of advisers in the 69传媒 First program who also earn royalties on the reading texts, assessments, and consulting work that participating schools have used. (鈥淪elect Group Ushers In 69传媒 Policy,鈥 Sept. 8, 2004.)

Other experts agree that the federal government seems to favor a small group of scholars. But it is unclear if those experts have been singled out by federal officials or if they鈥檝e simply 鈥済otten their way through persistence,鈥 G. Michael Pressley, a professor of education at Michigan State University and a former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology, wrote last week in an e-mail to Education Week.

Those experts generally 鈥渄id their job well and fairly鈥 in working with states and schools in 69传媒 First and recused themselves from conversations about the products they had a hand in devising, he added. Some individuals, however, 鈥渄id lobby hard for particular products, including ones that they had some connection to,鈥 Mr. Pressley maintained.

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69传媒
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide 鈥 elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

69传媒 & Literacy What Teachers Say They Need Most to Help Struggling Teen Readers
Educators also want more time in the school day to work on reading skills, a new survey finds.
4 min read
Close cropped photo of an open book with a teen girl's eyes peering over the top of the book.
Jack Hollingsworth/Getty
69传媒 & Literacy Opinion Boys Don't Love to Read. Could This Former Teacher Be on to Something?
Boys are falling behind in reading. Books with military-history themes may help reverse this trend.
7 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
69传媒 & Literacy Is Handwriting a Lost Art? What One College鈥檚 Kerfuffle Over Cursive Can Tell Us
Since 2014, there鈥檚 been a resurgence of cursive and handwriting education.
6 min read
A photograph of a close up of cursive handwriting that is undecipherable
E+
69传媒 & Literacy Quiz Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Student Literacy Data?
Answer 7 questions about the importance of student literacy data and how to collect and use it.