ABSTRACT
As reading professors, it is not surprising that our vision for this book began with our concern over the national trend toward standardizing reading curriculum. We knew, as former teachers, that no one program or curriculum can ever serve the needs of diverse and particular students. But as we came to learn and experience more of the tactics and policies of state and federal government officials regarding reading instruction the book began to take on a different face. We experienced disdain, insults, even outright intimidation when we tried to criticize current research and policy in our own state of New Mexico. We started to hear more and more teachers unwilling to voice negative opinions about scripted reading programs and standardized tests. “I’m afraid to say anything,” they would claim. Why, we wondered, the heavy-handed tactics? Why the intimidation? Why the forecasts of doom if the federal agenda is not implemented?
