NRRF

NRRF - Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery

Schools across the country are rushing to adopt Reading Recovery at great expense, even though research indicates that it doesn't live up to its expectations. Find out what the research really says before you let your school adopt this whole-language program.

Observations on Reading Recovery
by Dr. Patrick Groff, NRRF Board Member and Senior Advisor

Reading Recovery, a whole-language tutoring program, was developed in the 1970s by Marie Clay, a New Zealand educator. Dr. Groff looks at how children are assigned to Reading Recovery and how their progress is tracked while enrolled. In Reading Recovery, students are told to guess at unknown words and are given predictable text for practice reading. Neither practice is supported by reliable, replicable reading research.

Reading Recovery: An Evaluation of Benefits and Costs
by Dr. Bonnie Grossen, Research Associate, University of Oregon;
Gail Coulter, Research Associate, University of Oregon;
Barbara Ruggles, Beacon Hill Elementary, Park Forest Illinois

This analysis shows that Reading Recovery is extremely expensive and does not raise students' reading levels.


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