No Educator Left Behind is a series providing answers from the U.S. Department of Education to questions about the federal No Child Left Behind Act and how it will affect educators. If you have a question about No Child Left Behind, send an e-mail to Ellen Delisio, and we will submit your question to the Department of Education.

Question:

How does the No Child Left Behind Act help prevent children from falling behind academically?

U.S. Department of Education:

The No Child Left Behind Act targets resources for early childhood education so all youngsters get the right start and so avoid learning problems as they get older.

President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2005 includes $1.1 billion (an increase of $101 million, or 10 percent) for Reading First, a program designed to expand the nationwide effort to support comprehensive reading instruction for children in grades K-3. The President's budget proposal also includes $132 million (an increase of $38 million, or 40 percent) for Early Reading First, the pre-school component of the Reading First program.

Children who enter school with language skills and pre-reading skills (such as understanding that print reads from left to right and top to bottom) are more likely to learn to read well in the early grades and succeed in later years. In fact, research shows that most reading problems faced by adolescents and adults are the result of problems that could have been prevented through good instruction in their early childhood years. It is never too early to start building language skills by talking with and reading to children.

Read previous questions and answers in our No Educator Left Behind archive.