National Reading Panel

The National Reading Panel was a United States government body. Formed in 1997 at the request of Congress, it was a national panel with the stated aim of assessing the effectiveness of different approaches used to teach children to read.

The panel was created by Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health, in consultation with the Secretary of Education, and included prominent experts in the fields of reading education, psychology, and higher education. The panel was chaired by Donald Langenberg (University of Maryland), and included the following members: Gloria Correro (Mississippi State U.), Linnea Ehri (City University of New York), Gwenette Ferguson (Houston, TX), Norma Garza (Brownsville, TX), Michael L. Kamil (Stanford U.), Cora Bagley Marrett (U. Massachusetts-Amherst), S. J. Samuels (U. of Minnesota), Timothy Shahahan (U. of Illinois at Chicago), Sally Shaywitz (Yale U.), Thomas Trabasso (U. of Chicago), Joanna Williams (Columbia U.), Dale Willows (U. Of Toronto), Joanne Yatvin (Boring, OR).

In April 2000, the panel issued its report, "Teaching Children to Read," and completed its work. In 2001, President George W. Bush announced that the report would be the basis of federal literacy policy and was used prominently to craft "Reading First," a $5 billion federal reading initiative that was part of the No Child Left Behind legislation.

Reference

 * National Reading Panel 'About' section