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About Reading Recovery

What is Reading Recovery?
Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term intervention of one-on-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders.  The intervention is most effective when it is available to all students who need it and is used as a supplement to good classroom teaching.  In Reading Recovery, 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 read within the average range of their class and demonstrate that they can continue to achieve, their lessons are discontinued, and new students begin individual instruction. 

Origin
Reading Recovery was developed by New Zealand educator and researcher Dr. Marie M. Clay. Dr. Clay conducted observational research in the mid-1960s that enabled her to design ways to detect children's early reading difficulties. In the mid-1970s, she developed Reading Recovery procedures with teachers and tested the program in New Zealand. Since its success in New Zealand, Reading Recovery has spread to Australia, the United States, Canada and Great Britain. More than one million first graders have been served in the United States since Reading Recovery was introduced in 1984.

Basic Facts
Goal  |  What  |  Who  |  How  |  Outcomes | Professional Development | History of Success

Reading Recovery Videos