Parameters of the legislation
On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This law represents the most sweeping K-12 education changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) since it was enacted in 1965. NCLB legislation is based on these reform principles:
  •  emphasis on teaching methods that have been scientifically proven to work;
  •  stronger accountability for results;
  •  increased flexibility and local control; and
  •  expanded options for parents.
The legislation's mandatory clauses (yearly testing of all students, subsequent grading of schools with repercussions for failing schools, requirement that methods be scientifically proven) give the federal government unprecedented influence over reading programs in local school districts. In actuality, federal involvement over many decades led to NCLB.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has tracked student performance with annual testing of students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Reading and writing scores have remained relatively flat since testing began in 1971. This is particularly disturbing given how low those scores have been. For example, in 2003, 37 percent of fourth graders could not even read at basic level, meaning they could barely read a sentence without difficulty. Only 32 percent had proficient or advanced reading skills. As a matter of fact, scores over the thirty-year period show fewer than one-third of the nation's students attaining reading proficiency.

In 1965, the National Institutes of Childhood Health and Human Development (NICHD) first began funding scientific research focusing on reading and learning disabilities. Perhaps because of the National Commission on Excellence in Education’s scathing 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, the 1985 Health Research Extension Act directed NICHD to broaden and improve the quality of reading research. Dr. Reid Lyon has headed a team of over 100 researchers in education, medicine, and psychology at multiple research centers (14 to 18), including Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, the Universities of Houston and Colorado, and Florida State. A major issue with reading research had been inconsistency in findings. Reid established detailed sampling requirements and increased scientific rigor. As a result, NICHD has amassed a sizeable body of highly replicable and significant data. Research findings from this agency played a key role in the establishment of NCLB parameters and guidelines.

Reading First targeted skills
The first phase of NCLB is Reading First, an initiative aimed at helping every child across the nation to become a successful reader by the end of third grade. The primary grades are the optimum window for teaching children to read; yet two-thirds of students nationwide have not acquired adequate reading skills by fourth grade. Over 70 percent of that group continues to have poor achievement throughout their educations and are far more likely to drop out of school. For these reasons, the federal government promised to distribute up to $6 billion over the next several years to state and local early reading programs; however, this funding is below expected levels due to growing budget deficits.

The National Reading Panel (NRP) issued a report in 2000 that responded to a Congressional mandate to help parents, teachers, and policymakers identify key skills and methods central to reading achievement. The panel began its work with a thorough analysis of a National Research Council report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998). Then they set up parameters to screen some of the 1000 studies in reading instruction found in public databases since 1966 and identified methods that consistently related to reading success. NRP established these definitions and areas of study for skills critical to early reading success, which must be systematically and explicitly taught:
  •  phonemic awareness – the ability to hear and identify sounds in spoken words;
  •  phonics – the relationship between letters of written language and sounds of spoken language;
  •  fluency – the capacity to read text accurately and quickly;
  •  vocabulary – the words students must know to communicate effectively; and
  •  comprehension – the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read.

Reading First skill-area summaries are from the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) report, The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Each is followed by specific references to how Reading Manipulatives products support these objectives. This information provides the scientific support that districts may require.

CIERA phonemic awareness summary
1. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds called phonemes in spoken words.
2. Phonemic awareness is important because it improves children's word reading and reading comprehension and helps children learn to spell.
3. Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities, including asking children to: identify phonemes, categorize phonemes, blend phonemes to form words, segment words into phonemes, delete or add phonemes to form new words, and substitute phonemes to make new words.
4. Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using the letters of the alphabet and when instruction focuses on only one or two rather than several types of phoneme manipulation.

RM phonemic awareness products
Scientific research clearly demonstrates the benefits of explicit phonics, and CIERA instructional strategies (3 & 4) appear to suggest explicit phonics methodology.

In the Reading Manipulatives Phoneme Songs & Blending program, clever songs and memorable posters teach isolated phonemes. Once students know phoneme sounds, they learn to blend them together to form words. Blending is a difficult task for many. Representing phonemes with pictures prior to introducing letters facilitates this process. Word families place the graphemes (letters) over the pictures and are excellent for building blending proficiency. This multisensory phonemic awareness program meets all CIERA criteria.

Once students have basic phonemic awareness concepts, Initial, Final, and Vowel Phoneme Sorts and give students practice identifying and segmenting phonemes. As students figure out the names for the pictures, they improving vocabulary and thinking skills.

CIERA phonics summary
1. Phonics helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
2. Phonics instruction is important because it leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle (the systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds).
3. Programs of phonics instruction are effective when they are systematic (the plan of instruction includes a carefully selected set of letter-sound relationships that are organized into a logical sequence) and explicit (the programs provide teachers with precise directions for the teaching of these relationships).
4. Effective phonics programs provide ample opportunities for children to apply what they are learning about letters and sounds to the reading of words, sentences, and stories.
5. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children's word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension and is most effective when it begins in kindergarten or first grade.

RM phonics products
Reading Manipulatives phonics materials are optimal for meeting these objectives and assuring that all students learn key phonics skills. Students today are primarily kinesthetic learners. The game-like feel of manipulatives motivates students of all ages, so they work at higher levels and accomplish more.

Fragmented skills instruction in workbooks and black-line masters is ineffective, and that is a major reason why educators pulled back from structured phonics during the whole language era. Completeness and continuity lead to mastery. Our phonics products identify the key phonetic principles and then teach them systematically and explicitly. Students enjoy the manipulatives and will gladly repeat them as often as needed.

Knowledge of short/long vowel phonemes and patterns is the most utilitarian phonics skill. Of the 44 phonemes in the English language, those with the highest utility are the 5 short vowels. Students should first learn consonant phonemes. Then, once they master the short and long vowel sounds and patterns, they can begin to unravel the fascinating puzzle of written language through the application of key phonetic principles. Thorough and fun sets of manipulatives enable all students to master decoding and blending skills.

Next, Reading Manipulatives offers several products to develop orthographic skills. Our holistic approaches to teaching affixes and syllabication are amazingly effective. Teachers tell us that they have a better understanding of how these skills work now that they have used our methodical products.

Last, but not least, Reading Manipulatives phonics materials can be used for all age levels. The structure and format of these comprehensive products does not insult older students. They work just as well with adults and they do with primary students.

CIERA fluency summary
1. Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly.
2. Fluency is important because it frees students to understand what they read.
3. Reading fluency can be developed by modeling fluent reading by having students engage in repeated oral reading.
4. Monitoring student progress in reading fluency is useful in evaluating instruction and setting instructional goals, and it can motivate students.

RM fluency products
Since fluency deals with reading text accurately and quickly, it stands to reason that teaching fluency is not directly developed with manipulatives or other materials. However, we do have 2 products that deal with sight vocabulary acquisition.

Amazingly, knowing short/long vowels and patterns unlocks 50 percent of the Dolch 220 words. We have combined strategies for teaching sight vocabulary with Reading Manipulatives phonics materials. This leads to faster mastery of these high frequency words, thereby improving fluency.

CIERA vocabulary summary
1. Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print.
2. Vocabulary is important because beginning readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print. Readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading.
3. Vocabulary can be developed indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own. It is developed directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word learning strategies.

RM vocabulary products
Reading Manipulatives has effective, multilevel vocabulary products. These materials cleverly combine manipulatives with usage checks. Levels are available for students of all ages and abilities. Levels have a similar appearance, taking away much of the stigma that is often attached to materials used with below-grade-level students.

Our holistic approach to studying affixes builds genuine understanding of the function of prefixes, suffixes, and Latin root words. Students build words, study functions, and match cloze sentences to verify understanding of the vocabulary words.

Our synonym material paves the way for synonym substitution, a powerful writing strategy. Analogies are excellent for building vocabulary and reasoning abilities. Both familiarize students with common testing formats.

Reading Manipulatives vocabulary materials are challenging, valuable activities. Older students enjoy manipulatives and work at higher levels because of this.

CIERA text comprehension summary
1. Text comprehension is important because it is the reason for reading.
2. Text comprehension is purposeful and active.
3. Text comprehension can be developed by teaching comprehension strategies.
4. Text comprehension strategies can be taught through explicit instruction, through cooperative learning, and by helping readers use strategies flexibly and in combination.

RM text comprehension products
Manipulatives are ideal for developing many comprehension and usage skills. What better way to teach sequencing or word order than with movable pieces? Comprehension strategies are taught in a structured manner, and abundant practice leads to mastery. Concepts learned from the manipulatives transfer readily from reading to writing.

Activities in comprehensive sets of manipulatives contain fascinating facts to engage students. As they improving reading and language arts skills, students learn about the world and its inhabitants.

The materials also foster student accountability. They are coded and have checklists to track completed work. Teachers familiarize students with the skills and materials format. Then, in most sets, students can select, complete, correct, and record their activities. Students are accountable for choices and progress. They are more motivated, and they always have worthwhile choices of things to do in their spare time.