First grade students participating in Reading Recovery improved significantly in both reading words and overall comprehension, finds a new evaluation of the program by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, but the authors note some schools’ selection criteria may bar students in high need of help.
The study, the second of three evaluating the program’s effectiveness as part of the federal Investing in Innovation, or i3, grant, finds students who took part exceeded their expected reading growth on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills by more than 3 points—about 1.4 months of learning.
However, the authors noted some schools excluded students with high absences or receiving special education, which could limit the number of high-risk students served.
