What is Reading Recovery?

Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-on-one lessons for low-achieving first graders. The intervention is most effective when it is available to all students who need it and is used as a supplement to good classroom teaching. In Reading Recovery, individual students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher. As soon as students reach grade level literacy expectations and demonstrate that they can continue to learn through their own efforts, their lessons are discontinued and new students begin individual instruction.
 
How Reading Recovery Was Developed
 
Reading Recovery was developed by New Zealand educator and researcher Dr. Marie M. Clay. Dr. Clay conducted observational research in the mid-1960s that enabled her to design ways to detect children’s early reading difficulties. In the mid-1970s, she developed Reading Recovery procedures with teachers and tested the program in New Zealand. Since its success in New Zealand, Reading Recovery has spread to Australia, the United States, Canada and Great Britain. More than 1.6 million first graders have been served in the United States since Reading Recovery was introduced in 1984.

About the Effectiveness of Reading Recovery

The US Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES) confirms Reading Recovery to be an effective intervention based on scientific research! See the findings in detail at What Works Clearinghouse.