Reading Recovery
Local governments can invest in this strategy using State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
- This strategy can help address educational disparities. The U.S. Department of Treasury has indicated that strategies that help achieve this outcome are eligible for the use of Fiscal Recovery Funds.
- Investments in this strategy are SLFRF-eligible as long as they are made in qualified census tracts or are designed to assist populations or communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Program overview
- Addressing literacy difficulties early: Reading Recovery is a literacy intervention program for first grade students who are not meeting grade-level standards in reading or writing. The program intervenes early in a student’s education to address literacy difficulties before they affect the student’s long-term educational achievement. Participating in Reading Recovery is associated with improved literacy outcomes, including improved general reading achievement, reading fluency, and writing productivity, among other measures.
- Structured, one-on-one lessons: As part of the Reading Recovery program, students participate in daily, half-hour literacy lessons over a 12 to 20-week period. These lessons are delivered one-on-one by a specialized Reading Recovery teacher, who supplements the work done by students’ general education teacher. A standard lesson includes seven components: rereading familiar texts, reading the book introduced in the prior lesson, letter identification, phonics, and morphemic analysis activities, composition, story reconstruction, an introduction to a new book, and the first read of the new book.
- Intensive training for educators: Reading Recovery uses a three-tiered training and professional development system for teachers, teacher leaders, and university trainers. Regardless of their role, educators receive a full year of graduate-level education and ongoing professional development to support their implementation of the Reading Recovery model. The training for Reading Recovery teachers focuses on preparing the educator to adapt their instruction based on each student’s responses during their sessions.
- Integrating assessment into the program: The Reading Recovery model includes opportunities for assessment at multiple points during the student’s journey through the program. In particular, each lesson includes opportunities for formative assessment, which enables the teacher to modify their instruction to each student’s needs.
- Strategies
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Literacy curricula and interventions
- Cost per Participant
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Not available
Multiple studies with rigorous designs provide some evidence for Reading Recovery as a strategy for improving literacy outcomes among first-grade students.
- A 2023 systematic review found that participation in a Reading Recovery program was associated with increased literacy achievement, writing productivity, and receptive communication and improved writing conventions.
- A 2013 systematic review found that participation in a Reading Recovery program was associated with increased general reading achievement and improved reading fluency, reading comprehension, and alphabetics.
- Secure buy-in from school leaders: In past implementations of the model, school systems’ commitment to the Reading Recovery program was a critical factor in their success. When school building and district leaders strongly champion the program, it demonstrates that implementing Reading Recovery with fidelity is a priority for the school system. Positioned as a system-wide priority, Reading Recovery is then more likely to receive the resources necessary for it to be most effective.
- Systematically select students: The Reading Recovery program includes a standardized early literacy assessment, the Observation Survey, which schools should use to identify the lowest achieving 20% of students, those most in need of additional support with reading and writing. As part of the model, schools should begin delivering lessons within two weeks of the beginning of the school year, with the lowest achieving students receiving services first.
- Staff for proper lesson delivery: As part of the Reading Recovery model, teachers are required to provide no more and no fewer than four lessons per day. Typically, teachers will hold secondary roles for the other half of the day. These often include small group tutoring, instructional coaching, or classroom teaching.
- Encourage communication and collaboration: The program model encourages Reading Recovery teachers to communicate and collaborate with the first-grade general education teachers with whom they share students. Schools may support these exchanges by providing additional planning time or other formal opportunities for collaboration. Leveraging their extensive training in literacy education, Reading Recovery teachers and teacher leaders may also lead professional development opportunities for other teachers.
- Data Collection and Evaluation: Ongoing research and evaluation are essential to Reading Recovery’s success. Since Reading Recovery was introduced in the United States in 1984, data have been collected and analyzed for each of the more than 2.3 million children served. The International Data Evaluation Center (IDEC), an ongoing research project in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University, is responsible for collecting and analyzing data. The extensive IDEC database has made Reading Recovery accountable to schools and funding sources, and informed teaching and management decisions.