Can Uncle Sam help kids read? | Episode 1023 of The Education Gadfly Show

Charles Barone of the National Parents Union joins Mike Petrilli to debate the Senate’s bipartisan READ Act. Would additional federal funding help states strengthen teacher preparation and expand evidence-based reading instruction, or could a larger federal role politicize the science-of-reading movement and repeat the mistakes of Reading First?Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern reviews a new study examining why tutoring’s impact on student achievement tends to shrink when programs scale up.Recommended content:Is the Senate’s READ Act a Reading First redux? —Michael J. Petrilli, SCHOOLEDThe READ Act: A National Commitment to Literacy —National Parents UnionFrom the Teacher’s Desk: A Science of Reading Progress Report —David Griffith and Brian Fitzpatrick, Thomas B. Fordham InstituteToo Good to Last: The True Story of Reading First —Sol Stern, Thomas B. Fordham InstituteWhat Impacts Should We Expect From Tutoring at Scale? Exploring Meta-Analytic Generalizability —Matthew A. Kraft, Beth E. Schuele, and Grace T. Falken, SAGE Journals (2026)Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our show? We would love to hear them. Send them to [email protected]