Long-term Effectiveness of the Reading Recovery Early Reading Intervention Program in a Rural School District

Abstract

There are many programs that specialize in teaching students the necessary strategies for reading. But which ones will have the greatest impact and provide lasting skills to struggling students? The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the Reading Recovery early intervention program on the lowest performing first grade students in a rural North Carolina school district. This was accomplished by assessing their pre- and post performance in the program using the Reading Recovery assessment An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement, specifically the Text Reading Level subtest (Clay, 2002) and tracking their subsequent progress via the NC EOG (End-of-Grade) test of reading. Students who participated in the program increased from a mean Text Reading level of 3 at the start of the program to a mean Text Reading level of 14 at the time of program completion. Long-term effectiveness of the program was less encouraging. A little less than half (44%) of the participants continued to maintain performance at the level of proficiency on the EOG in third grade and subsequent grades showed lower percentages. Once the participants had completed the Reading Recovery program in first grade they were performing on average with their peers. However, in third and subsequent grades the students were not performing equivalent to the average performance of the school district.