School children all across North America have been through one of the most challenging years in our history. Many are likely to have fallen behind, compounding stubborn disparities in achievement by race and by income. Reading Recovery’s efforts to help first-grade students get on track with reading has shown positive literacy growth.

For 36 years, we’ve been serving struggling readers with one-on-one intensive support. Under our model, students receive 30 minutes a day of one-on-one support for 12 to 20 weeks.  Today, the Reading Recovery Community is in thousands of schools all across North America.

We recently analyzed 10 years of data in 872 Reading Recovery Schools. We had a sample size of about 5000 students — all of whom started first grade several months behind their peers in terms of reading skills. We looked at where the kids were after five months into the school year and the results were remarkable.

One group of students made nine to ten months of progress in just five months and ended up at the head of the class.

A second group also caught up, making more like 8 to 9 months of growth. A third group was still behind but had also made considerable progress.

Achievement gaps start early depending on whether our youngest children get birth to five learning opportunities. But, as the data shows, we also know we can close the gaps and give every child a better chance for a better education.

Given the disruption of the past year, it’s more important than ever that we help all children get on track. Interventions like Reading Recovery are one way of getting it done.

Data provided by the International Data Evaluation Center (IDEC)