Separate surveys by the General Accounting Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Center on Education Policy have all found strong support for Reading First among its participants. The following quotes compiled by an independent journalist typify state directors' enthusiasm for the program:

"When you see that you taught reading one way for 15 years and didn't see any results, and then you do this for two years and you start to see results, and you see the faces of happy children, if you're a human being, that's got to have an impact."
—Beverly Kingery, Lead Coordinator, Reading for All, West Virginia

"Reading First is our best chance in many decades to close the achievement gap and end three decades of flat-line outcomes."
—Debora Scheffel, Director, Reading First and Competitive Grants, Colorado

"Reading First encompasses all the things that research says effective schools do. That is unique. It's seen as a place to learn. I love everything about it. I love it every day."
—Lexie Domaradzki, Reading First Administrator, Washington

"In our state people want to be a Reading First school. We get many more applications than can fund. We're in such a different place than we were three years ago."
—Marie Mancuso, former Deputy Associate Superintendent, Arizona Reads

"Reading First has helped us sustain and deepen our reform efforts by allowing us to reach many more districts and provide a lot more support to teachers and principals."
—Alice Furry, Chief Administrative Officer, Reading First, California Technical Assistance Center

"We have been able to use the hammer of Reading First as a tool to impact grades 4 and 5 and pre-k. It's been an incredible foundation for us."
—Mary Laura Openshaw, former Director, Just Reads Florida!

"An awful lot of non-Reading First schools are starting to implement the tenets of Reading First on their own. Veteran teachers are raving about what Reading First has done for them. The whole field is learning together. Before Reading First, reading instruction was all over the map."
—Cindy Gallagher, Reading First Director, New York

"Everybody inside Reading First is so incredibly generous with resources. Everyone shares everything. It's like nothing I've ever experienced in education before."
—Debbie Hunsaker, Reading Program Director, Montana

"We're really excited about what we're doing with Reading First in higher education. If we just had a little more time, we could create a culture of evidence-based education."
—Robin Miles, Director, Office of Reading, Early Childhood, Language Arts, Mississippi

Home | About Us | About Phonics | Resources
Research | Topics | Reading Reform | Links | Search

Unless otherwise noted, you may copy and distribute any information on this site as long as The National Right to Read Foundation at www.nrrf.org is given credit. The National Right to Read Foundation is a 501(c)(3) publicly supported organization.