Experiment in extensive reading spared by legal action
In the education landscape of Junction City, Oregon, Annette Sisler, an elementary school principal, embarked on a new journey this school year. Sisler adopted the Enhanced Core Reading Instruction model, a decision that was not made lightly.
The adoption of this model was recommended by a 2015 federal law, which urged schools to adopt rapid response systems. However, the path to its implementation was not straightforward.
The study that was scheduled to provide insights into the effectiveness of this model was on the brink of release, but it might never have seen the light of day had it not been for legal action.
The study, the largest experiment on reading ever funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, was abruptly cancelled by the Trump administration. The cancellation affected not just this study, but other ongoing studies, as school districts became hesitant to sign up for experiments that could be nixed midway through.
The study, which was 6 1/2 years in the making and 93% of the funds had already been spent, was being conducted by a team at Boston University. The early warning system at the heart of the reinstated study is formally known as a multi-tiered system of support for reading.
The system is modeled after medicine, with doses of instruction based on student needs. It starts with a strong reading curriculum for all students, adds small-group lessons for those falling behind, and provides one-on-one interventions for the most at-risk students.
Before adopting the model, Sisler observed a first-grade girl who struggled with disjointed phonics lessons, becoming confused and frustrated. After implementing the Enhanced Core Reading Instruction model, Sisler reported a significant decrease in the share of her second-grade students struggling with reading fluency, from 43% to 8%.
The cancellation of the study left some school superintendents "skittish" about participating in future studies. Education researchers know that protecting their relationships with schools is one of their most important jobs, and the cancellation had increased "mistrust" in research among educators.
The Institute of Education Sciences, the institution responsible for conducting the study, has been shrunk to a tenth of its former size due to layoffs. The institution that resumed the contract for conducting the study on the early warning system for reading, after it was cancelled by the Trump administration, is not explicitly mentioned in the provided search results.
The story is about a massive, federally funded study of a system to detect when kids are having trouble learning to read and get them help immediately. The disruption of this study left many questions unanswered, punctuating large-scale experiments and longitudinal studies with question marks.
In the years after, many schools said they'd added it, but researchers agree that few implemented it well. The story was reported by APM Reports in connection with its podcast "Sold a Story": How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong. The Trump administration has reinstated only 12 of the over 100 cancelled contracts from the Institute of Education Sciences, according to a June court filing and a review of federal spending data.
The cancellation of federally funded studies is a concern for all involved, as the future of educational research and the students it aims to help hang in the balance.
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