Sergeant Joe Friday of Dragnet fame was content with "just the facts"; the Department of Education's Inspector General is not so humble. How else to explain his animus toward the Reading First program, recently found by OMB to be one of only four "effective" programs in the entire Education Department? This week's escapade features federal agents sifting through the five-year-old conference proceedings of the Reading Leadership Academies to prove that some (but not all) reading programs were highlighted as effective. Wait, it's a crime to bring attention to interventions that work? Isn't that the point of most conferences? Education Week, always hot on the trail of this alleged "scandal" (while chronically ignoring all manner of true outrages, such as the fact that most Education Department programs have been found not to work and yet continue to get funded, usually with more dollars each year), played its assigned role as faithful rapporteur. But it, too, has veered into interpretation, last week labeling former Reading First director Chris Doherty's "tone" as "aggressive and arrogant" because he...dared to enforce the law! Never mind that its own on-the-ground reporting has shown the program (and its "aggressive" management) to be a blessing. OK, everyone, time for a vocabulary test. Please define "cognitive dissonance."
"Ed. Dept. Allowed Singling Out of ‘Reading First' Products," by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education Week, February 23, 2007
"E-mails Reveal Federal Reach Over Reading," by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, Education Week, February 20, 2007