For that reason, I was pleased in 1997 when Congress funded the National Reading Panel (NRP) to
evaluate research about teaching children to read. The panel's charge was to review existing
studies, choose those that were well designed and well implemented, and synthesize their findings.
The results were published in 2000 (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
2000), and became the basis of the Reading First grant program included in the No Child Left
Behind legislation of 2001. Although there was initially a good deal of controversy about the findings
of the report, all U.S. elementary school teachers were soon very aware of the five "essential
elements" of reading instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension).