March 2004 — Exclusive Series: SBR
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Scientifically Based Research: Guidelines or Mandates for Product Purchasing?
Two days later, Dr. G. Reid Lyon, a researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development - as well as President Bush's top reading advisor and a contributing author to the Reading First component of NCLB - was quoted in The New York Times as saying: "We can find no published research indicating that this program has been tested with well-defined groups of kids and shown to be effective. And clearly one would want to know those kinds of details before incorporating any program into use."
Although Lyon, who neither works for the Education Department nor helps make decisions about grant applications, did not directly threaten the rejection of New York's Reading First application, the message was clear that the adoption of Month-by-Month Phonics could jeopardize a substantial portion of the $68 million in federal aid that New York state could get for Reading First.
On Feb. 25, Lyon was quoted in The New York Times again, this time saying that it was "unfortunate that we are making decisions about children's lives [on the basis of] untested assumptions rather than on being sure of what we know works for kids at risk of reading failure." The next day, Klein defended his choice once more, saying, "That's our program and we're prepared to protect it."
Yet, somewhere along the line, Klein backed off of his "no-prisoners" position. The New York Times reported on April 5 that Klein had added another phonics-based program to the reading curriculum - the New York City Passport program, developed by Voyager Expanded Learning of Dallas, which is a more intensive program for struggling readers.
So, while Klein kept Month-by-Month Phonics and claimed that he always intended to augment it with other materials, it was not until Month-by-Month Phonics was challenged that any word of an additional phonics-based program began to surface. Some educators theorize that he brought on a "sanctioned" Reading First program so as to not jeopardize federal funding.
Ultimately, however, Klein reversed himself completely. On Jan. 6, 2004, almost a year after the original announcement of the Month-by-Month Phonics choice, New York City schools announced that they were abandoning the program in 49 of its troubled elementary schools, presumably to ensure they received $34 million from Reading First programs. The new curriculum chosen for the 49 schools was Harcourt Trophies, a single comprehensive program, as opposed to the aggregation of multiple resources characterized by the prior approach.
Mandate by Fiat?
This episode in New York City has sent a clear message to districts that the Education Department may, if not dictate, at least strongly influence the actual materials that are purchased with Reading First funds. However, it remains to be seen the extent to which this might occur in other programs under NCLB. Even if vocal federal-level personages don't put outright pressure on localities' purchasing decisions, districts oftentimes interpret plans, visions or guidance from higher-up bureaucracies as mandates, especially if they perceive that money is tied to the proclamation.
