Episode 30 of HeadLocke is out.
In 2012, Republican lawmakers in the N.C. General Assembly addressed stagnant performance on state and federal reading tests by passing legislation that would create the Read to Achieve program. The goal of the program was to provide funding for additional literacy instruction for students at risk of not reading at grade level by third grade, a key marker for student achievement in later grades.
Researchers at N.C. State University recently published an evaluation of the Read to Achieve program. It concluded that the $150 million in state Read to Achieve funds allocated to districts over the last five years did not appear to improve statewide reading achievement for students directly or indirectly exposed to the program. Researchers speculated that faulty implementation was to blame.
John Locke Foundation Senior Political Analyst Mitch Kokai joins Terry, who confronted Read to Achieve personally and professionally, to dive into the North Carolina’s failure to improve reading instruction in the early grades.
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