Part of the “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001 (PL 107-110, Title I, Subpart A), provides guidance to ensure that all children learn to read well by the end of third grade. Chief among the requirements is that instructional and assessment materials incorporate the best and most rigorous scientifically based reading research (SBRR). SBRR has identified five essential components of effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

What is SBRR? According to NCLB, SBRR is research that applies rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading difficulties. The research must:

• employ systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment
  
  
• involve rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn
  
  
• rely on measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers and across multiple measurements and observations
  
  
• have been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review.