Spellings was in town to present the grant to Marquette University, but she used the opportunity to defend the success of Early Reading First and Reading First, two initiatives financed through the law.
“No Child Left Behind has taken a flat line in student achievement, and it’s starting to tick upward,” Spellings said at a meeting with the Journal Sentinel editorial board.
Congress already has cut back on the $1 billion-a-year Reading First initiative. The program’s budget was reduced by 60% last year following revelations of mismanagement.
The Education Department’s inspector general reported in 2006 that Reading First administrators had violated conflict-of-interest rules when awarding grants and steered contracts to favored textbook publishers. The program’s director at the time, Chris Doherty, resigned shortly before the report was made public. Also, an Education Department study made public in May concluded that Reading First failed to improve reading comprehension among participating children.
Spellings said Thursday that “the ship has been righted” and that she hopes the agency will avoid further cuts to the program.