READING FIRST COMES IN LAST.

Sadly, the massive "Reading First" skills-builder program at the heart of No Child Left Behind doesn't actually improve reading skills among enrolled kids. This fits into the larger pattern in education reform efforts which is that most ideas fall short of expectations. Vouchers have found themselves in a similar decline, and now they're losing support even among conservatives. It's worth saying there's little in the way of partisan, or ideological, victory here. It would be good if we could really nail down what works in education. But my conclusion, increasingly, is that the best thing you could do for poor kids' educational prospects is increase their parents' economic prospects. That's not to say either exists in a vacuum, but nor does it look likely that we're going to find educational approaches powerful enough to counterbalance the pull of parents, community, peers, playground, etc, etc, etc. Education reform is a piece of the war on poverty, but it isn't, by itself, a winning strategy. Update: Read the always brilliant Kevin Carey, who'll probably be pissed off by this post, on vouchers.