About the Intervention
Reading Recovery is a supplemental literacy intervention for first-grade students with low literacy achievement. The program provides daily one-on-one tutoring sessions lasting 30 minutes each, delivered over 12 to 20 weeks by specially trained Reading Recovery teachers. Each lesson is tailored to individual student needs based on ongoing observations and assessments of student strengths and weaknesses. Instruction incorporates phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, writing, oral language, and motivation as needed. Students are pulled out of regular non-literacy instruction during school hours while continuing to participate in their classroom's typical literacy instruction. Teachers must complete a full academic year of graduate-level training under a registered Reading Recovery teacher leader, including a weeklong training on administering the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement screening assessment, ongoing professional development sessions (at least six times per year), and supervised practice implementing the intervention with students.
Statistical Findings
Positive effect: on literacy achievement
Positive effect: on writing productivity
Positive effect: on receptive communication
Positive effect: on writing conventions
More Intervention Details
Focus Areas
N/APrograms & Services
General Education, Remedial EducationDelivery Methods
Face-to-FaceDisability Support
N/ATarget Groups
Student(s)Citation
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. (2023). Reading Recovery®. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/WWC/intervention/209.
Study Demographics
These charts show the demographic makeup and geographic setting of the research study that evaluated this intervention's efficacy. When assessing the fit of an intervention, consider whether it was found effective in a context similar to your own.
Participant Race
What was the racial breakdown of this study's data sample?
Participant Gender
What was the gender breakdown of this study's data sample?
Other Participant Characteristics
Geographical Setting
What was the setting of this study?