Reading Recovery Review:
Understandings, Outcomes and Implications
 

Documented by 20 years of research and evaluation, Reading Recovery:                                                                                                                                  

• Provides a one-to-one tutoring program for first graders who are having extreme difficulty learning to read and write.
• Provides an intensive, year-long teacher education program that involves analysis of behavior and teaching for expert decision making.
• Provides ongoing professional development for teachers.
• Provides intervention at a critical time -- before the cycle of failure begins.
• Provides a safety net for low achieving children as a supplement to a good classroom program.
• Provides short term intervention -- 12 to 20 weeks.
• Provides 30 minutes daily of extra instruction.
• Provides reading, writing, and attention to letters, sounds, and words.
• Provides children the chance to become independent readers and writers.
• Provides an opportunity for accelerated progress.
• Provides lessons in either English or Spanish, depending on the language of instruction in the classroom.

Reading Recovery demonstrates that the world can be different.

Typically, low achieving children are expected to make slow progress year after year, maintaining low achieving status throughout the grades. Reading Recovery demonstrates that with a different use of resources, the path of progress can be altered for most of these children.

"When investing in Reading Recovery, the system has taken out an insurance policy to protect against future failure. If serving the lowest-achieving children, the program can provide increased assurance that grades 2 and above will have few, if any, nonreaders. The amount of investment depends on how much protection the system needs and/or wants."¹

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Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

• Introduction to Publication

Section 1: A Review of Reading Recovery

• Introduction to Reading Recovery
• The Goal of Reading Recovery
• An Investment in the Professional Skills of Teachers
• The Research Base for Reading Recovery
• Collecting and Reporting Reading Recovery Data
    -  Measures Used in Reading Recovery
    -  Discontinuing Procedures
    -  Counting Every Child
• Two Positive Outcomes of Reading Recovery
• Implementation Factors Affecting Reading Recovery Success
• Issues of Trademark and Royalty Free License

Section 2: Responses to Some Common Misconceptions

• Clarification 1: Reading Recovery is not aligned with any classroom approach
• Clarification 2: Reading Recovery teachers DO teach children about letters, sounds, and words
• Clarification 3: Reading Recovery is not a classroom program and is not a program for groups
• Clarification 4: The design of Reading Recovery calls for service to the lowest achieving children
• Clarification 5: Children are not arbitrarily 'dropped' from Reading Recovery service
• Clarification 6: Reading Recovery continues to expand

Section 3: Review of Research and Evaluation Related to Reading Recovery

• Summaries of Reading Recovery Reviews (Table 2)
• Data Across 13 Years in the United States (Table 3)
• Comments about Program Effectiveness
• Summaries of Reading Recovery Studies (Table 4)
• Continued Progress After the Intervention
• Considerations When Reviewing or Conducting Reading Recovery Research

Section 4: Responses to Major Challenges to Reading Recovery

• Challenge #1: Is Reading Recovery expensive?
• Challenge #2: Does Reading Recovery raise the average level of cohort performance?
• Challenge #3: Does Reading Recovery change the structure of schools?
• Challenge #4: Is Reading Recovery training too intense?
• Challenge #5: Does Reading Recovery preserve the status quo by protecting the structure of schooling?

Section 5: A Collaborative Mission: Literacy Opportunities for All Children

Endnotes

References