The most lucid analysts of Reading First are the teachers, coaches, principals, trainers and state directors who are working hard to implement the program as directed and who have something to show for their efforts. Reading First is spawning thousands of these successful acolytes in cities, suburbs and small towns across the country: hard workers of all types who have accepted the challenge to teach-indeed to learn better how to teach-America's hardest-to-teach children.

These participants attribute their success with Reading First to 1) strong leadership at USDOE and 2) the program's packaging of five key elements:

• Emphasis on research-based reading programs and teaching practices: Schools are required to use curricular materials and instructional techniques that are based on scientifically based reading research, and to provide substantial training for teachers in the use of same. Significant funds are provided for research-based materials and training.

• Support for Valid and Timely Assessments: Schools are required to use valid and reliable assessments to closely monitor student progress in the early grades, and to use the results quickly to reshape instruction. Significant funds are provided to pay for the assessments and for extensive training on same.

• Accountability for outcomes in a focused domain: An important difference between Reading First and its less successful predecessor, the Reading Excellence Act, is that Reading First adds money for external evaluation and allows grants to be cut off if evaluators find a grantee has failed to follow the program's guidelines or produce adequate gains in student achievement.

• An adequate support system at the state and national level: States are permitted to retain 20 percent of their grants (instead of the usual 5 percent) to support a wide range of training and other help for their districts. At the federal level, three regional technical assistance centers are funded ($1.8 million per year each) to provide extensive support to states on an as-needed basis.

• High quality professional development: The three regional technical assistance centers have emerged as the states' preferred source for training and expertise on how to teach reading. Publishers have responded to the law's clear goals and requirements by stepping up their support for their products in the classroom.

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