## *Reading First in...*

##  *Utah*

Utah will receive \$4.6 million in funding for the first year of its
Reading First grant. And the Beehive State will receive \$30 million
over the next six years, subject to demonstration of success and
Congress' appropriations.

-   Reading First helps states, districts and schools apply
    scientifically based research---and the proven instructional and
    assessment tools consistent with this research---to ensure that
    every third grader reads at grade level.

Utah's funding will be used to establish academic success in a
large-scale pilot program, which will be used to spur even wider
statewide reform efforts.

-   Utah will use about \$3.7 million of the grant to make sub-grant
    awards to approximately 20 schools in eligible districts. Utah plans
    to begin making sub-grant awards in spring 2003.

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-   These sub-grants will allow schools to implement research-based
    reading programs for students in kindergarten through third grade
    and to provide professional development to ensure that all teachers
    have the skills they need to teach these programs effectively.

-   In addition, the program will support the use of instructional
    assessments so that teachers can effectively screen and identify the
    reading barriers facing their students, as well as monitor their
    progress.

The Governor, in consultation with the State Superintendent of
Education, has convened a Reading Leadership

Team.

-   The team will ensure an integrated approach to improving K-3 reading
    instruction and raising K-3 reading achievement statewide. In
    addition, the Utah Department of Education will integrate Reading
    First with its statewide infrastructure for improvement of early
    literacy.

Utah's Reading First will focus on building and supporting a better
teaching corp.

-   As part of Utah's state professional development plan, all Reading
    First teachers in Utah will participate in a series of six graduate
    courses in scientifically based reading instruction. Upon completion
    of this course, all Reading First teachers will have a Level I
    Reading Endorsement.

-   The State will closely monitor the progress of schools and districts
    participating in Reading First, and will conduct a longitudinal
    evaluation of its program.

**What is Reading First?** Reading First is one of the most important
components of President Bush's *No Child Left Behind Act*---the
bipartisan law to improve American education. It sets aside \$900
million this year to ensure that schools use only scientifically based
curricula and teaching methods.

**Why are scientifically based programs important?** When it comes to
our children we can't afford to use untested methods or psychological
fads.

-   The Food and Drug Administration never lets a new drug onto the
    market until it has gone through strict safety tests and scientific
    study because the risks are just too high. So, too, in education we
    cannot let teaching methods be tried out on children without
    scientific evaluation.

-   Reading First doesn't just protect young minds, it encourages
    schools to use the reading instruction already proven by science.

**Why do we need Reading First?** For two decades reading achievement
has been flat. Less than one in three fourth-graders is deemed
"proficient" in reading at grade level. By 12^th^ grade just 40 percent
of seniors are proficient in reading for their grade. *America can do
better.*