Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-to-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders.  Intervention is most effective when it is available to all students who need it and is used as a supplement to good classroom teaching.

Goal
The goal of Reading Recovery is to dramatically reduce the number of first grade students who have extreme difficulty learning to read and write.

Who
Reading recovery serves low-achieving first graders—the students who are not catching on to the complex set of concepts that make reading and writing possible.

How
Individual students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading Recovery teacher.  As soon as students can meet grade-level expectations and demonstrate that they can continue to work independently in the classroom, their lessons are discontinued, and new students begin individual instruction.

Outcomes
•    Since 1984, when Reading Recovery began in the United States, approximately 75% of students who complete the full 12 to 20 week intervention can meet grade-level expectations in reading and writing.  
•    The few students who are still having difficulty after a complete intervention are recommended for further evaluation.