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:

What exactly is Reading First, and what are its specific goals? How does it differ from other reading programs?

U.S. Department of Education:

Reading First is not a reading program per se; it is a federal grant program designed to promote the use of research-based reading instruction to help every child in every state become a successful reader. During the next several years, nearly $6 billion in Reading First grants will be distributed among the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Those funds are specifically dedicated to helping states and local school districts establish high-quality, comprehensive reading instruction for all children in kindergarten through third grade.

Unlike previous national reading initiatives, Reading First establishes clear, specific expectations for what can and should be taught to every single student in a classroom. Reading First requires that scientifically based reading research drives teachers' classroom instructional decisions.

Grants are available for state and local programs in which students are systematically and explicitly taught five key early reading skills. Those skills are

• phonemic awareness -- the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds (or phonemes) in spoken words.
• phonics -- the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
• fluency -- the capacity to read text accurately and quickly.
• vocabulary -- the words students must know to communicate effectively.
• comprehension -- students' ability to understand and gain meaning from what they read.

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