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Reading Recovery


File number :
PPEE-ISC-06e

Bibliographic reference :
Rodgers, E. M., Wang, C., & Gomez-Bellengé, F. X. (2004). Closing the Literacy Achievement Gap with Early Intervention. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
<http://www.readingrecovery.org/>

Abstract :

The Reading Recovery program, widely implemented in English-language countries, was developed in 1976 by researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Considering the poor reading achievement observed in students from ethnic minorities and underprivileged environments, the authors wanted to determine whether early one-to-one intervention using the Reading Recovery program could abate these achievement inequalities efficiently enough.

Program Description
The purpose of the program is to intervene as early as the first grade of elementary school in order to cut down on reading problems before they become irreversible. Participating children are taught daily on a one-to-one basis during school hours for 12 to 20 weeks, depending on need. Specially trained teachers from the school tutor these children. Other members of school staff complete the team by providing support to the tutors and ensuring identification and follow-up of students with problems.

Assessment
The study conducted by Rodgers and her team was to first confirm the existence of the literacy achievement gap and then to evaluate the program's effect in terms of closing this gap. Data on the reading performance of first graders in the U.S. was gathered with three literacy tasks from An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement at the beginning and the end of the 2002-2003 school year. Three groups were formed: (1) students who participated in the program for 20 weeks, (2) students, closer to the initial average, who successfully exited the program before the 20 weeks were up, and (3) the comparison group. Results were examined separately under two angles, ethnicity and economic status.

Findings
The researchers have confirmed that a literacy achievement gap existed between African-American and white ethnic groups, and between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds (those who got free lunches vs. those who did not). However, comparison of the results for the 20-week program has shown that there was still an achievement gap at the end of the year, despite significantly narrower.

In the case of the students who exited the program in under 20 weeks, the differences observed between the ethnic and socioeconomic groups at the end of the year were no longer significant for two of the literacy tasks and less significant for the third task.

The Reading Recovery program appears to hold promise for abating ethnic and socioeconomic status inequalities. To be successful, the program needs to be applied school-wide, particularly with further teacher training.

For more details on the program, log on to this Website: http://www.readingrecovery.ac.nz/index.php



Links :
 http://www.readingrecovery.org/"

Key Words :
Reading Recovery, Underprivileged Environments, Ethnic Minorities, Reading, Early Intervention, One-to-one Teaching, Tutoring, Learning Difficulties, Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement, Primary School, Elementary School

Monitored Countries :
United States