Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery is a school-based literacy intervention for first-grade students having the greatest difficulty learning to read and write. According to evidence from longitudinal research, children who struggle with reading in the early years are very likely to continue struggling in later years. As a result, these students frequently encounter school failure and often drop out of school. It is therefore necessary to redirect educational policy and school funding to the prevention of reading failure. Reading Recovery represents not only a significant reading intervention but also a significant reading reform because of its success in fostering enhanced comprehension and fluency.

The goal of Reading Recovery, as a first-grade literacy intervention, is to intervene early and spoil the predictions of failure that often accompany early difficulties with reading. The expert, intensive instruction delivered by Reading Recovery teachers helps children get back on course to recover their trajectory of reading development.

Having Reading Recovery lessons means that most children who begin the instruction with abilities far below the average of their classroom (lowest 20%) end the intervention in 12 to 20 weeks working within average reading and writing levels. They are able to make use of regular classroom instruction and continue to make progress.

Reading Recovery teachers become specialists in designing and delivering individual literacy lessons to first-grade students who are having the greatest difficulty learning to read and write. Professional development for Reading Recovery teachers is designed and delivered by literacy coaches called “teacher leaders.” The teacher leaders participate in professional development designed by Reading Recovery faculty at the university level.

Reading Recovery has been implemented worldwide in five countries and developed in English, Spanish (Descubriendo la Lectura), and French. To date, Reading Recovery and Descubriendo la Lectura teachers have taught more than 1.7 million students in the United States alone. The 2008–2009 report stated that more than 91,000 first-grade students received Reading Recovery or Descubriendo la Lectura lessons in the United States from 10,820 teachers working in nearly 6,500 schools. Approximately 75% of those children who received a complete intervention reached average levels of reading and writing.

Reading Recovery is rarely a full-time teaching assignment because of the intensity of the teaching involved; therefore, Reading Recovery teachers usually work in some other role for part of the school day, most often as a Title I or classroom teacher. In 2007–2008, Reading Recovery/Title I teachers taught, on average, 45 students each during the school year, and the average Reading Recovery/classroom teacher taught 30 students during the year.