About The Partnership for Reading

The Partnership for Reading is a collaborative effort by three federal agencies - the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the U.S. Department of Education - to bring the findings of evidence-based reading research to the educational community, families, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to read well. First established in 2000, The Partnership is now authorized by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-110).

The Partnership's mission is to disseminate evidence-based research, a focus that makes it substantively different from earlier information dissemination efforts and clearinghouses. This mandate to use evidence-based research as the basis for making decisions about reading instruction was advanced by the work of the National Reading Panel (NRP), assigned by Congress in 1997 to review the available research. Setting high standards for research quality, the NRP examined more than 460 studies to extract the essential findings about what has been scientifically proven to work in reading instruction.

The work of the NRP was just the beginning. Through ongoing, high quality research, our understanding of how to teach reading will continue to grow. The Partnership for Reading will stay at the forefront of that effort in several ways. First, The Partnership will bring the substantial body of evidence established by the NRP to the educational community through products and events that articulate the findings for a wide range of audiences. Second, it will continue to build the connection between scientific evidence and strategies used in classrooms and at home to make children better learners. And finally, The Partnership will add to the body of knowledge through continual review of new and existing research, using high standards of research quality.