Funding cuts could impact Alabama Reading Initiative

Alabama’s progress in raising elementary students’ reading scores may be threatened by potential cuts to federal funds that complement the Alabama Reading Initiative.

According to the Southern Regional Education Board, between 2005 and 2007, Alabama fourth grade students led the country in improving scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress, a test that gives apples to apples comparisons on how students are faring compared to their counterparts in other states.

The Alabama Reading Initiative is garnering a lot of the credit for Alabama’s reading progress. ARI, which was started by former Gov. Don Siegelman and continued by Gov. Bob Riley, uses research-based instruction and individual tracking of student progress to help students learn to read. The program is now in nearly every elementary school in Alabama and is being spread to Alabama’s middle schools.

Todd Weeks, principal of Grandview Elementary School, said ARI programs have greatly helped him increase the reading skills of his students, who largely come from low-income families.

Weeks said the program’s emphasis on reading coaches, education professionals who track individual students’ reading progress and tailor programs to suit them, has helped them improve the school’s reading scores.

“They’re like another set of eyes and legs for the principal,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be without mine.”

The state has steadily increased its support for ARI, which it is now expanding into state middle schools. At the same time, the federal government has pared down funding for Reading First, a federal reading program that Alabama has used to complement ARI. Since hitting a funding peak of $19 million in 2005, Alabama’s share of Reading First funds has dwindled to $7 million this year, and the program may be cut altogether in 2009.

Part of the reason for the cuts may be partisan politics. Reading First, which was originally approved with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, has caught heat from congressional Democrats who are unhappy with a large number of contracts the program awarded to a former Bush Administration official.

Alan Richard, a spokesperson for the Southern Regional Education Board, said cutting funds that help ARI could negatively impact the state’s strides in improving students’ reading skills.

“The loss of federal funds could put a dent in what has been a great success for this state,” he said.