Prof. Richard Allington of the University of Tennesse at Knoxville, a Reading Recovery defender and former President of the International Reading Association asks the most important question in his remarks to Education Week on the program's postive rating by the Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse: “[A]re we going to take all the interventions off the Reading First Web sites that don’t meet the What Works criteria?... I don’t have a lot of confidence that anyone in Washington actually cares about the evidence.”... This is the point Cong. Miller needs to keep foremost in mind during the House education committee's upcoming hearings on Reading First.... And in the end, this question is the key issue for those betting on the school improvement industry as a good investment. The What Works' bar is pretty low, and if its results don't matter to the use of federal funds, the new firms can't compete against the established players or the unfettered discretion of department officials. Meaningful standards of performance are the only basis of their competive advantage. Remarkably, the research-driven providers have not organized themselves to bring their expertise to bear on this question.   more »

Every school improvement provider is not automatically viewed with scepticism by the press. The determining factor seems to be whether the firm is perceived to work within the system or against its constituencies.... It also helps when the firm is seen to have roots in education and research rather than business and finance. It also helps if the firm has made ongoing evaluation a priority.... If you are the CEO of a school improvement provider, or an investor, or a communications firm with these clients, the pattern deserves close study.   more »