Reading First is a part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Title I, Part B, Subpart 1). Reading First is designed to assist schools in establishing reading programs for students in kindergarten through grade 3. These programs must be founded on scientifically-based reading research and aid in ensuring every student can read well by the end of third grade.
Link to DPI Reading First Website and WI Reading First Grant Application
Reading First Initiative in Wisconsin
State Superintendent Elizabeth Burmaster has articulated a New Wisconsin Promise to ensure quality education for all Wisconsin children. Key strategic priorities of the New Wisconsin Promise that are consistent with Reading First include reading as a fundamental skill for all children, early learning opportunities, quality teachers in every classroom, and strong leadership in every school. Recognizing the critical importance of these key priorities in a child’s education, Wisconsin’s Reading First plan is designed to improve student reading achievement in grades K-3.
Implementation of this plan focuses on reading programs based on scientifically based reading research (SBRR); reliable and valid screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring and outcome assessments; high quality professional development to ensure that K-3 teachers and K-12 special education teachers develop the expertise to help students become successful readers; a sound evaluation design conducted by an experienced and highly qualified outside evaluator; and leadership that results in improvement in reading performance.
Findings from the National Reading Panel report indicate that effective instruction can help children become good readers. As envisioned by Wisconsin’s Reading First Leadership Team, our Reading First classroom will be a model classroom for meeting the needs of diverse groups of students. Classrooms will be staffed by highly qualified professional teachers who are well-versed in SBRR and able to share their expertise to best meet the needs of all children, regardless of the severity or complexity of their learning needs. Wisconsin’s Reading First Goals Statewide Impact Goal
To ensure that every Wisconsin student can read at grade level by the end of their third-grade year.
Objective 1: Each year narrow the achievement gap between the low income children and their peers in terms of percentage and number of low income students who score in the proficient and advanced levels as measured by TerraNova Reading and WI Reading Comprehension Test (WRCT).
Objective 2: Each year narrow the achievement gap between children of color and their peers in terms of percentage and number of children of color who score in the proficient and advanced levels as measured by TerraNova Reading and WRCT.
Objective 3: Each year narrow the achievement gap between Limited English Proficient (LEP) students and their peers in terms of percentage and number of LEP students who score in the proficient and advanced levels as measured by TerraNova Reading and WRCT.
Objective 4: Each year narrow the achievement gap between special education students and their peers in terms of percentage and number of special education students who score in the proficient and advanced levels as measured by TerraNova Reading and WRCT. irst Page 1WI Reading F 12 May 03
By Lee Sensenbrenner, The Capital Times
December 11, 2004
A hiring freeze has been declared in the Madison Metropolitan School District, as Superintendent Art Rainwater tries to deal with a possible $1 million shortfall in the utilities budget.
Rainwater made the announcement Friday in a letter to board members and the district's management team. It says that "the prospect remains that additional actions may be required."
Although we all love to watch our children play soccer, swim, play tennis, basketball, hockey and even lacrosse and field hockey, it is becoming incredibly important that we keep the role of sports in our life in perspective.
In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a basketball arena erupt in violence while young and old watched their "role models" explode with out of control anger and vigor. We have seen the "elite" track and field athletes questioned and suspected of artificial results.
What are our expectations of these athletes and our own son and daughters? Hopefully, it is to watch them compete, have fun and perform to the best of their natural ability. When society begins to focus on winning at all costs, we see where the fun leaves the sport, performance enhancement cheating begins and frustration of continual expectation boil over in an unexpected violence. In addition, the rapid firing of college coaches from an upstanding university where the student-athletes were students first and athletes second, makes one again question the values of the institutions of higher learning.
We would love to think that all of this is new. However, consider Rudy Tomjavonich having his face destroyed by Kermit Washington. Consider Ben Johnson and others having their gold medal and world championships stripped.
Today's events should not be that surprising. Until society changes some of their expectations, the athletes will continue to look at ways to cheat, violence will continue to infect the culture of sport and colleges will maintain their win first and education second mentality.
Considering all of this, it has been a treat watching Brett Favre continue to compete and overcome his personal problems and personal tragedy over the last year. He continues to play a GAME like our son or daughter might do on a Saturday morning whether it is soccer, tennis, or football. He plays for the FUN of the game and although disappointed, seems to recover quickly after a tough loss and not stay too high after a big win. Sure he makes some mistakes but he realizes this is just a GAME. There are bigger issues in the world - his father, his brother-n-law and now his wife to name a few. Hopefully, society can begin to focus on SPORT as a GAME, to be played for FUN as a way of entertaining us, keeping us healthy and improving our health -- physical and mental -- both as a participant and a spectator.
This attitude would go along way to solving many of the ills of sport -- the NHL strike, the violence, the performance enhancement. Yes this sounds simple but it also might keep children and adolescents participating when they want to give up a sport when it becomes too competitive.
For a related article, please see http://www.townhall.com/columnists/joelmowbray/jm20031204.shtml
Comments welcome.
PARIS, Dec. 6 - High school students in Hong Kong, Finland and South Korea do best in mathematics among those in 40 surveyed countries while students in the United States finished in the bottom half, according to a new international comparison of mathematical skills shown by 15-year-olds.
The United States was also cited as having the poorest outcomes per dollar spent on education. It ranked 28th of 40 countries in math and 18th in reading.
U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills