Reading Recovery® is a short-term, early intervention literacy program designed for young readers who are at risk of failing to read and write. The goal of the program is to enable the lowest achieving learner to make accelerated progress, catch up with grade-level peers, and profit from regular classroom instruction.

Emporia State University was approved as the 23rd Reading Recovery® Regional Training Center in North America in the spring of 1998. The Center provides the following services:

• training for teacher leaders
• ongoing professional development for trained teacher leaders
• support for new and existing Reading Recovery® programs within school districts
• statewide and longitudinal research
• networking with other Regional Reading Recovery® Training Centers throughout North America and the world
• promotion of literacy acquisition for all children through the Reading Recovery® safety net
  

The ESU Center supports nine teacher training sites, serves 65 school districts and, to date, has helped 3,135 of Kansas's lowest achieving children learn to read and write.

Approximately 200 reading professionals attend the Regional Reading Recovery® Conference held each year at ESU. The Center has also established a Kansas Advisory Board, which meets annually to serve as counsel and advocate for children who need the Reading Recovery® program.

The effectiveness of the Reading Recovery® program has resulted in generous funding support from many different agencies. School districts from Tonganoxie, Kansas and Harrisonville, Missouri received national Ronald McDonald House Charities Scholarships to help fund the training of teacher leaders at Emporia State University. An Eisenhower Grant, jointly written by the ESU Training Center and the Southwest Regional Service Center at Sublette, provided $49,000 in funding to train a teacher leader for the region's school districts. The R.D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation of Ruidoso, New Mexico funded two $20,000 teacher leader scholarships for the 2001-2002 year and gave $6,000 to support Reading Recovery® research. ESU and the Kansas State Department of Education also provided funding for the program.

Find out more about the 23rd Reading Recovery® Regional Training Center in North America housed at ESU...