ORONO – Reading Recovery is meeting its promise to bring the lowest-performing first-grade readers up to the average class achievement level – and perhaps beyond – according to University of Maine research. The study provides scientific evidence that Maine students completing the program not only reach or exceed the reading level of their classmates, but also sustain effects of the instruction up to grade four.

The study investigated the performance of a cohort of Reading Recovery students who were first-graders in 1998, as measured by the 2001 grade four Maine Educational Assessment reading and writing tests. The findings are particularly meaningful as schools confront increased state and federal accountability and tighter fiscal restraints. The results – based on all children who took the grade four MEA in 2001 – show that Reading Recovery helps school districts increase reading and writing scores, as required under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Reading Recovery is a research-based one-on-one tutorial intervention where first-graders with reading and writing difficulties are carefully observed and instructed for a period of 12 to 20 weeks by highly trained Reading Recovery teachers. The majority complete the program and continue learning through regular instruction. Children who do not achieve the expected performance level within the time limit still make significant gains in learning and are referred for additional services in their schools.

The investigation reveals that the average MEA reading and writing scores of Reading Recovery children who had completed the program as first-graders were within the average achievement band of all Maine fourth-graders.

Moreover, a substantial number of these former lowest performers scored above the state average.

“It’s moving the whole curve up, which is what a system intervention should do,” said Paula Moore, UMaine associate professor of literacy. “The more we can have students at the average level or above, the more efficient instruction can be.”

Moore was the state’s first university Reading Recovery trainer, the highest designation in the program’s teacher educator structure. Moore conceptualized the study, and Valerie Ruhe, UMaine research associate, designed and conducted the research.

Data on Reading Recovery achievement is collected when students enter the program in the fall, when they complete or leave the program, and at the end of the school year. Ruhe linked micro-data of 1,250 fourth-graders who were Reading Recovery students in 1998 and more than 14,000 students who took the grade four MEA reading and writing tests in 2001. Students who had completed Reading Recovery scored within the statewide average range in both reading and writing.

Ruhe also compared results of the Maine study to the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report card.” While only 48 percent of Maine students “met expectations” in the MEA reading test, the average score of Maine fourth-graders on the 2002 national assessment test was higher than the national average. The writing scores of Maine fourth-graders on the national test also were higher than the national average. This outcome reflects the rigor of the MEA and suggests that first-grade students at risk have farther to go to meet its high standards, Ruhe explained.

“Our research shows that most of these children are indistinguishable from the general fourth-grade population and have ceased to be at risk,” Ruhe said in the report. “The findings also support the theory that Reading Recovery instruction extends young students’ cognitive processing abilities.”

Pupils can enter Reading Recovery any time during the school year, but Ruhe and Moore encourage schools to manage their programs as effectively as possible so that pupils can be quickly identified and begin lessons at the beginning of the year.

This would allow time for a second, and possibly a third, round of pupils participate.

“For many students, Reading Recovery provides a second chance to become effective, lifelong literacy learners,” said Mary Rosser, the university trainer for Reading Recovery.

Rosser came to UMaine last summer from Australia where she was state trainer for Reading Recovery in Queensland and a member of the academic staff at the Queensland University of Technology.

Reading Recovery was designed in New Zealand in the 1970s.

The UMaine College of Education and Human Development, in partnership with the Maine Department of Education, has been a statewide center for nationally registered Reading Recovery teacher training and service delivery since 1992. Since then, Maine Reading Recovery has trained 670 teachers and 30 teacher leaders, and has served some 25,800 Maine children.

Copies of the study, “The Impact of Reading Recovery on Later Achievement in Reading and Writing,” are available from Dr. Valerie Ruhe, 581-2370; or e-mail: valerie.ruhe@umit.maine.edu.

“In my 35 years as an international educator, Reading Recovery is one of the most powerful and successful literacy interventions I have encountered,” Rosser said.