ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is intended to move in the direction of better understanding the "achievement gap in reading" and alternative solutions that will benefit not simply single schools, but large numbers of schools and school districts across America, thereby producing vision and change at a truly national level. It claims that early dialogic book reading coupled with direct measurement and parent feedback is the missing links necessary for reducing and perhaps removing the achievement gap in reading among poverty children. Richard Long and Alan Farstrup conveyed the power of the federal government to influence educational goals and patterns of instruction has been expanding ever since President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law in 1965. Central to that involvement has been the idea that reading is both the key element of success in school and the symbol of federal program effectiveness.
