Press and Policymaker's Guide to Reading Recovery

Reducing the Consequences and Costs of Reading Failure.
Reading Recovery is a highly-successful short-term intervention for lowest-performing first-graders. Children receive 30-minute one-to-one daily lessons taught by specially trained teachers.  After just 12 to 20 weeks, 75% of these lowest students reach grade level standard. (See Facts & Figures.)

Reading Recovery is also available as Descubriendo la Lectura for students receiving classroom instruction in Spanish. In Canadian classrooms where children are learning in French, Reading Recovery has been reconstructed as Intervention Préventive en Lecture-Ecriture.

By intervening early, Reading Recovery helps to close the achievement gap between lowest-achieving children and their peers before the gap becomes too large to bridge. Reading Recovery is the early safety net in a school’s comprehensive literacy plan.

Reading Recovery is cost-effective because it prevents long-term reading difficulties for many children. A report commissioned by the KPMG Foundation in the United Kingdom reports the Long-Term Costs of Literacy Difficulties and estimates substantial cost savings in unnecessary social services, health costs, corrections costs, and increased productivity.

A Non-Profit Partnership Between Universities and Schools.
Reading Recovery is not a packaged program purchased by schools. It is a non-profit partnership between universities and schools to train teachers who then design individual lessons that reduce the number of children who will need long-term costly interventions. Based on theoretical work of Marie Clay and more than 30 years of research, Reading Recovery is an international short-term literacy intervention for lowest-performing beginning readers.

Alignment with Federal Policy Including Compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Reading Recovery is aligned with federal reading policy. Reading Recovery lessons incorporate the five essential elements of reading instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) into daily lessons. Backed by scientifically-based reading research, Reading Recovery’s experimental research received high ratings by USDE’s What Works Clearinghouse.

News Articles and Releases about Reading Recovery.
Updated daily, the Press Room posts news releases and links to media articles reporting news about Reading Recovery and relevant education policy from the U.S. and around the world. The Issues and Advocacy section reports on Reading Recovery facts and positions and informs RRCNA members how they can take action to support Reading Recovery.

RRCNA: A not-for-profit member association.
The Reading Recovery Council of North America is the professional home to thousands of Reading Recovery professionals classroom teachers, administrators and partners – all sharing a common vision; that children will be proficient readers and writers by the end of first grade.