Overview

Reading Recovery Overview

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What

Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-to-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders.

Who

Reading Recovery serves the lowest-achieving first graders—the students who struggle to catch on to the complexity of reading and writing in their regular classroom instruction.

How

Students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks, one-on-one with a specially trained teacher so they can catch up with their peers.

Downloadable Resource: Understanding Reading Recovery: A Comprehensive Model of Instruction

Reading Recovery Lesson in Action

Nothing is more important when children enter first grade than learning to read and write! Yet for some children good classroom instruction is not enough.

Reading Recovery is a one-to-one intervention that serves as an additional level of support to the classroom by providing more comprehensive assessments, individualized instruction, and immediate intervention.

Reading Recovery serves the lowest-achieving first graders—the students who are not catching on to the complex set of concepts that make reading and writing possible. Students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher. Once each student meets grade-level expectations and demonstrates the ability to work independently in the classroom, their lessons are discontinued, and new students begin individual instruction.

Reading Recovery is a trademark intervention with standards and guidelines to ensure the integrity of the intervention and the high quality of expected results. The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) engaged in a 4-year evaluation of Reading Recovery in an i3 scale-up grant (May et al., 2016). CPRE assessed program fidelity by analyzing consistency with the Standards and Guidelines of Reading Recovery in the United States. Their analysis revealed strong fidelity to the program model across all years of the study, supporting the validity of their impact findings.

Reading Recovery Basics

To intervene early (first grade) before students’ literacy difficulties become lifelong obstacles.

To develop effective reading and writing strategies in order to make faster than average progress and work successfully and independently in classrooms.

For students whose literacy instruction is delivered in Spanish (Descubriendo la Lectura) in the United States; also available in French in Canada (L’intervention préventive en lecture- écriture).

30 minutes daily for 12 to 20 weeks for first graders having the most literacy difficulties (supplementing good classroom instruction).

Initial training for an academic year and subsequent ongoing professional development for school-based teachers, site/district-based teacher leaders, and university trainers.

Carefully designed intensive instructional practices; individual instruction based on informed decision making by a knowledgeable teacher using appropriate assessments and systematic observation.

(a) data collected daily by Reading Recovery teachers to inform instruction,

(b) descriptive and outcome data for every child served collected and reported by Ohio State University’s International Data Evaluation Center, and

(c) research validating the effectiveness of the intervention.

Fidelity of implementation based on adherence to trademark standards and guidelines for teaching, training, and implementation at school and district levels.

Includes University Training Centers, North American Trainers Group, Literacy Council of North America, International Data Evaluation Center, Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery, state/regional teacher leaders and teachers.

Reading Recovery Results

Reading Recovery is backed by rigorous research and has been documented as an effective intervention by both the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse and Evidence for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

What Works Clearinghouse has twice confirmed the effectiveness of Reading Recovery. The 2013 study showed positive or potentially positive ratings across all four outcomes — alphabetics (phonics and phonemic awareness), fluency, comprehension, and reading achievement. Among programs reviewed, Reading Recovery received the highest improvement index in reading achievement and fluency. The 2023 study doubled down on the findings of its 2013 review, finding additional positive effects.

Reading Recovery has been evaluated by Evidence for ESSA in four qualifying studies. In comparison to control groups, the average effect size across the four studies was +0.43 on measures such as ITBS, CAT, Woodcock, and Gates. These outcomes qualify Reading Recovery for the ESSA “Strong” category, and for the “Solid Outcomes” rating (at least two studies with effect sizes of at least +0.20).

Read more about Reading Recovery’s scientific research base

Intervention Topics