Mon, May 5, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

A new federal report shows that the Bush administration’s $1 billion-a-year Reading First program has done little to significantly improve children’s reading skills.

Reading First, one of the No Child Left Behind law’s core initiatives, emphasizes phonics and uses scripted teaching materials and regular detailed assessments of children’s skills. Proponents of the program had said it would be especially useful for improving reading among low-income children.

But research released Thursday by the Education Department’s Institute of Education Sciences shows that reading skills among children in the Reading First schools were not markedly better than those of children in schools that were not part of the program.

Researchers analyzed reading scores and programs for 30,000 to 40,000 children in each of the first, second and third grades from 2004 through 2006. The biggest change, they found, is that Reading First teachers spent roughly 10 minutes more per day on phonics and other foundations of reading than teachers who were not in the program.

Meanwhile, Reading First has faced scrutiny by federal auditors and Congress, both of which have investigated allegations that the program’s top officials improperly benefited when textbook and testing materials they created were awarded Reading First contracts over those offered by other publishers.

A 2007 audit by the Education Department’s inspector general reported that Reading First officials failed to properly screen curricula and often funneled lucrative federal contracts to untested reading programs that, coincidentally, were created by former employees or friends of the Bush administration.

Furthermore, the panels that awarded the federal Reading First grants included private contractors who were receiving royalty payments from the creators of the curricula that were chosen.

Congress cut Reading First’s funding by 60 percent last year — and why not? For five years the program has abused the government contracting process and has failed to do what it promised. The government should be investing in education programs that actually improve children’s skills.