About Paths to Literacy Initiatives

Reading Recovery® is a unique, short-term early literacy intervention that provides intensive individual instruction for the children with the lowest reading performance in first grade. Students receive 30 minutes of daily differentiated, individual instruction in reading and writing for a period of 12 to 20 weeks from a highly trained, certified Reading Recovery professional. During the remainder of the instructional day, a teacher serves as an intervention specialist and works with small groups of students having difficulty in literacy. This structure provides schools with a comprehensive intervention design for extending and sustaining the literacy achievement of K-5 students.

Reading Recovery was developed in New Zealand by Dr. Marie Clay in the mid-1970s, following extensive observational research on children who were learning to read. In addition to New Zealand, Reading Recovery is currently available in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Great Britain and the United States. In 1991, Georgia State University became a Reading Recovery Regional Training Center for Teacher Leaders.

Benefits of Reading Recovery

• Provides intensive and comprehensive instruction that is responsive to student needs
• Provides a system-wide, short-term, high-rated early intervention
• Provides an effective Response to Intervention (RtI) approach
• Provides accelerated progress for at-risk students
• Provides exceptional professional learning that improves teacher quality and performance
• Provides for increased student outcomes
• Provides benefits for the whole school
• Research and evaluation

Reading Recovery is the world’s most widely researched intervention for young children having extreme difficulty with early literacy learning.  After nearly 30 years of research, Reading Recovery’s effectiveness has been replicated over and over again in hundreds of sites across the United States and abroad.

It’s In the Data

In an era where scientifically-based research is considered a hallmark of effectiveness, Reading Recovery has a record of experimental studies that meet the gold standard for scientifically-based research. In addition, teachers and teacher leaders collect data on each student’s progress. This data is sent to the Reading Recovery International Data Evaluation Center for compilation and analysis. Teacher leaders prepare an annual report of student outcome data for their site. Trainers at the university prepare an annual report of the aggregated data from all sites affiliated with Georgia State University. IDEC prepares a comprehensive report of the aggregated data.

Positive Outcomes

In addition to the primary goal of ensuring that students in first-grade reach proficiency in reading by the end of first grade, Reading Recovery has other positive outcomes. Reading Recovery serves as a safety net for the lowest-achieving children and works as a pre-referral to special education, with many children avoiding placement in special education as a result of the Reading Recovery intervention. An additional positive outcome of Reading Recovery is the reduction in the number of students retained in first grade.

Reading Recovery students maintain their gains after first grade. State studies from Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Georgia and South Dakota have reported that Reading Recovery children sustain their gains beyond first grade, as measured by standardized tests.

Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy (PCL)

In schools implementing the Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy (PCL) model, Reading Recovery is a critical component of the design. The partnership between universities and schools allows for intensive training for new teachers and teacher leaders along with high-quality professional development in an effort to increase the literacy achievement of struggling readers. Each year, the Georgia State University Reading Recovery Regional Training Center publishes an Executive Summary, detailing the results at sites affiliated with the Georgia State RR Regional Training Center (insert link for Research Reports)

Additional information about Reading Recovery can be found at readingrecovery.org.