Abstract
During the last 35 years, the right-to-education movement and the standards-based educational reform movement have merged to impact reading research and practice. In the process, equal access to education has become a reality for minority students and students with disabilities. The passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) in 2004 shifted the focus from the right to an education to the standards and accountability for the quality of that education. The integration of NCLB and IDEA and their emphasis on early intervention create the context within which special education teachers can better serve the needs of students with dyslexia in a multitiered service delivery model. Data from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress in fourth-grade reading are presented to demonstrate evidence of racial gap reductions in some urban districts and disability gap reductions in some states. Finally, the need to eliminate resistance to empirically defined notions of quality teaching is discussed.