Reading recovery in Sydney primary schools

Abstract

This paper reviews the findings from a controlled experimental study of the effectiveness of the Reading Recovery Program undertaken in ten primary schools in Sydney, during the second year of its implementation. Children, selected by their teachers as low progress readers after one year at school, were randomly allocated to either Reading Recovery or to a control condition in which they received only the resource support typically provided to at‐risk children. Low progress children from five schools of similar socio‐economic level, but without a Reading Recovery Program, also took part in the study. All children were pre‐tested on a number of norm and criterion referenced reading related literacy measures, post‐tested on the same measures fifteen weeks after the Program commenced, and once again after a further fifteen weeks to assess maintenance effects. Results indicated that Reading Recovery students clearly outperformed students in the control group condition on most measures but, at this early stage...