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Reading Recovery in Kansas
Currently
there are seven teacher leaders at district training sites
throughout Kansas, which, provide training and support
for Reading Recovery teachers throughout Kansas.
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About
Reading Recovery
Program
for Children
Reading Recovery has one clear goal:
". . . to dramatically reduce the number of learners
who have extreme difficulty
with literacy learning and the cost of these learners to
educational systems. "
--Reading
Recovery Developer Marie Clay, 1994
Reading
Recovery is a short term, early intervention program designed
for the lowest achievers in a first grade classroom.
Children receive intensive one-to-one instruction for 30
minutes daily by a highly trained teacher. After 12-20
weeks, most children attain average or better reading and
writing levels and continue to make progress with regular
classroom instruction. Over a million children in
the United States have been served by this literacy intervention
since 1985.
Research
and Evaluation
Reading
Recovery is based on the best of current knowledge about
how children become literate.
The
success of Reading Recovery has been carefully documented
with over 30 years of data. Research is ongoing.
Reading Recovery teacher leaders and administrators at every
site systematically collect and report data on every child
to the National Data Evaluation Center for Reading Recovery
as well as to the U.S. Department of Education.
Follow-up
studies have shown that Reading Recovery children continue
to read at an average-or-better level after receiving the
intervention, reducing the need for long-term remediation.
Studies also document the program's effectiveness as compared
with other literacy interventions, cost effectiveness, and
success with ESL populations.
Network
Activities
"Reading
Recovery is a system wide intervention that involves a network
of education, communication, and collegiality designed to
create a culture of learning that promotes literacy forhigh-riskchildren."
--Lyons,
Pinnell, & Deford, 1993
Reading Recovery is a not-for-profit program
that involves collaboration among schools, districts, and
universities. In the United States, the name "Reading
Recovery" has been a trademark of The Ohio State University
since December 1990. The trademark contributes to
consistency of implementation across sites as they meet
the essential criteria described in a set of standards and
guidelines.
Educators
and institutions that have adopted Reading Recovery form
an extensive network to support early literacy. Network
activities include research, publications, and professional
development. The Reading Recovery network includes
10,612 schools, 3,596 districts, 571 teacher training sites,
723 Teacher Leaders, 23 university training centers, 40
university trainers, and 18,000 Reading Recovery and Descubriendo
la Lectura teachers.
Program
for Educators
"Reading
Recovery is an investment in the professional skills
of teachers."
--Reading
Recovery Review, 1998
"A
recent large-scale study revealed that every additional
dollar spent on raising teacher quality netted greater
student achievement gains than did any other use of
school resources."
--Darling-Hammond,
1996
The
key to successful implementation of the program resides
in the training model. Professionals are trained
at two levels. The teacher leader training begins
with a series of post-masters graduate level courses
at a university training center. The teacher leader
training model includes:
(a)
a study of the program procedures that includes working
daily with students across the course of a year;
(b) an in-depth study of the theoretical foundations
upon which the procedures are based;
(c) comprehensive study of seminal and recent theories
and research focusing on the reading and writing processes;
(d) training in the process of working with adult
learners; and
(e) training in management and administrative services
required to successfully implement the program.
Training
at the second level, teacher training, is also a year-long
commitment. Teachers enroll in a graduate level
course taught by a certified teacher leader. Through
clinical and peer-critiquing experiences, teachers learn
to observe and describe student and teacher behaviors
and develop skills in making moment-to-moment decisions
to inform instruction.
Both
trained teacher leaders and teachers are required to refine
and further develop their skills to effectively teach children
who are "at risk" of literacy failure. A body of research
indicates that Reading Recovery teacher training has powerful
and long lasting impact on the teachers who participate.
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