Conversation Currents: The Casualties of Policy on Early Literacy Development

In this column and in the podcast, Allington and Pearson name the casualties of policies, such as Reading First and No Child Left Behind. The impact is reduced time spent actually reading for meaning, the paucity of rich, meaningful discussions about literature between teachers and students, and an overemphasis on fidelity. Additionally, they discuss how DIBELS has woven itself into the fabric of early literacy policies and pedagogy and how teachers use DIBELS to monitor progress without evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness on developing readers.