Arkansas Reading First is a state initiative funded by the Federal Government as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Through this initiative, Arkansas school districts receive support and professional development to help schools achieve the goal of all children being readers by the end of Grade 3.

On August 14, 2002, the United States Department of Education awarded Arkansas $9,885,535 to develop and implement Reading First in qualified districts. The seventh state to receive funding, Arkansas has the potential to receive a total of $64.3 million over the six-year period of the grant. The Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) administers the state's Reading First funds and is responsible for design and implementation of the Arkansas Reading First program.

Reading First grants assist Arkansas schools to implement proven methods of scientifically based reading instruction in classrooms in order to prevent reading difficulties in grades K-3. The focus of the initiative is two-fold: (1) to raise the quality of classroom instruction by providing professional development for teachers using scientifically based reading programs, and (2) to ensure accountability through an assessment system which includes valid and reliable screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome assessments.
As a classroom-focused initiative, Reading First established specific expectations for literacy instruction for all students. Teachers' classroom instructional decisions must be supported by scientifically based reading research (SBRR), and instruction must systematically and explicitly teach the five key early reading skills:

• Phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds or phonemes in spoken words;
• Phonics - the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language;
• Fluency - the capacity to read text accurately and quickly;
• Vocabulary - the words students must know to communicate effectively; and
• Comprehension - the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read.

In accordance with federal requirements, the ADE conducted a competitive process to select and award sub-grants to K-3 schools from eligible districts. In the spring of 2003, Arkansas Reading First sub-grants totaling almost nine million dollars were awarded to thirty-nine districts to develop Reading First programs in sixty-seven schools.