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Every Child a Reader is
a three-year project (2005 - 2008) to get as many children
on Reading Recovery as possible.
Reading Recovery arose from the work of Marie Clay in New
Zealand (see www.readingrecovery.ac.nz/).
It is a well established intervention scheme for children
with reading difficulties, which identifies those having difficulty
with reading early in their school career. The programme provides
daily half-hour sessions with specially trained Reading Recovery
teachers for six-year-olds who are in the bottom 20% of their
class in terms of reading. The lesson consists of reading
two or more books (some familiar and one new one), letter
identification and/or word-making and breaking, as well aswriting
a story. Many LEAs continued to fund Reading Recovery in their
authorities once the GEST funding had finished.
Every Child a Reader is taking Reading Recovery to 38,000
children a year in inner-city schools around the UK. There
are 600 trained Reading Recovery teachers. A KPMG study (2006)
has calculated the economic advantages of the Reading Recovery
programme (see news from the press below).
Evaluation: The Institute of Education carried out
a study of Reading Recovery in six London LEAs, which showed
that Reading Recovery children made significantly greater
progress than children who received an alternative treatment
such as Phonological Intervention. You can download Evaluation
of Reading Recovery in London Schools: Every Child a Reader
2005-2006 from www.ioe.ac.uk/schools/ecpe/readingrecovery/index.html.
Reading Recovery has also been evaluated in New Zealand, Australia,
and the USA.
For more information on Every Child A Reader, visit www.everychildareader.org/
For more information on Reading Recovery, contact: The Reading
Recovery National Network, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford
Way, London WC1H OAL. Tel: 020 7612 6585. Email: Readrec@ioe.ac.uk. Website:
www.readingrecovery.org.uk.
Latest news from the press on Every Child A Reader and
Reading Recovery:
The Times has reported that children who have failed to master the basics of reading by the age of six are becoming the best in their class after only a few hours of specialist one-to-one tuition under a programme to be extended to all primary schools in England.
The 30 hours of specialist teaching over 12 weeks helped children who were two years behind their classmates to catch up. Two years later they had overtaken them. As well as improving progress in reading at four times the normal rate, the government-backed Every Child a Reader programme is also bringing about improvements in writing and motivation.
Read the full article at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article389704.ece
(The Times, 9 May 2008)
The TES has reported that Queensland, Australia is dropping use of the Reading Recovery programme due to fears that the gains children make do not last.
British government has given £5 million towards a three-year pilot of Every Child a Reader, a scheme that uses Reading Recovery as part of its approach. However, Australian state funding of the progamme is gradually being withdrawn because offices say improvements in pupils are temporary.
Literacy expert Kevin Wheldall, director of the Macquarie University Special Education Centre, said: "The logic of employing Reading Recovery as a solution for pupils who have struggled to learn to read following phonics instruction is almost wilfully perverse – a triumph of hope over experience. These are precisely the children for whom Reading Recovery works least well." He and colleagues have assessed research carried out since 1992. Findings on the scheme’s long-term effects were equivocal. One randomized control trial from 1995 concluded that it was only effective for one in three pupils.
However, Jean Gross, director of Every Child a Reader, said there was ample evidence it worked long-term: "Three early studies in the United States and New Zealand found the gains did wash out, but a large number of studies have found a long-term impact… It does wash out if children don’t go back into appropriate literacy learning in class."
(TES, 18 January 2008)
The Every Child a Reader scheme could offer a return of more
than £17 in the next 31 years for every £1 spent now. The
KPMG study said pupils who left primary schools in England
and Wales with poor reading skills could go on to cost between
£1.7bn and £2bn a year.
The research said there were costly problems linked to poor
literacy, like truancy and poor employment prospects. Research
published in November showed children who had the extra lessons
made an average gain of 21 months in reading age in 4/5 months
of teaching.
The KPMG research found the cost of offering the reading
programme to six-year-olds worked out at £2,389 per pupil.
The report said: "Based on evidence that such intervention
will lift 79% of children who receive it out of literacy failure,
the return on investment for every £1 spent on the programme
is estimated at between £14.81 and £17.56 over the next 31
years."
(BBC News, 11 December 2006)
TES reports on how, for £2,500 per child, Reading Recovery
saves pupils from a life of failure and likely exclusion.
To read this article in full visit www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2308606
(TES, 10 November 2006)
The Reading Recovery programme was started in New Zealand
by Dame Marie Clay and set up in the UK in 1992. It is aimed
at children who, after one year of school, are struggling
to read. Clay has prepared many of the books and materials
used by the programme. A study by the University of London's
Institute of Education, published today looked at 292 of the
lowest-achieving six year olds in 42 London schools between
September 2005 and July 2006. Researchers compared the reading
progress of 87 children on the Reading Recovery programme
with 147 other children.
The two groups started at similar levels (with an average
reading age of four years and 11 months, and four years and
10 months respectively). After 12 weeks, the Reading Recovery
group had caught up with their classmates and had an average
reading age of six years and seven months. They had gained
20 months. The non-Reading Recovery children were 14 months
behind them, with an average reading age of five years and
five months.
Despite these impressive sounding results, Reading Recovery
has been criticised because, at £2,000 to £2,500 per child,
it is expensive. It is argued that if all children were taught
synthetic phonics properly from the beginning in class, reading
wouldn't be a problem. Jean Gross, former educational psychologist
and director of the Government's Primary National Strategy,
disagrees. She is now director of Every Child a Reader, a
partnership between charities, business and the Government
which funds Reading Recovery.
Mrs Gross said: "Children fail to learn to read for all sorts
of reasons. It can be as individual as the children themselves.
Perhaps English is not the first language, or there's lack
of print awareness, social problems, or dyslexia. It's not
simple at all. The literacy hour didn't sort this for every
child and neither will synthetic phonics."
Every Child a Reader is a three-year project to get as many
children on Reading Recovery as possible. It began in September
2005, has funding until 2008 and will cost £10 million. KPMG,
the international accountancy firm, has contributed £2 million
and Man Booker Group has promised £1 million. The Government
has given £4.5 million. Every Child a Reader is taking Reading
Recovery to 38,000 children a year in inner-city schools around
the UK. There are 600 trained Reading Recovery teachers.
So is the expense justified to help a relatively small number
of children? Mrs Gross points out that 9.2% of boys arrive
at secondary school with a reading age below eight, then often
slip back. Later social problems, such as crime, drugs and
alcohol abuse, are linked with low literacy. However, if children
can read, they might grow up less frustrated and become more
employable. Mrs Gross says: "Every child who learns to read
confidently may be one who is saved from later problems."
Given the cost of keeping a person in prison (more than £20,000
a year) or paying long-term welfare benefits, £2,500 to enable
children to read could be an investment which will save the
state a lot of money later.
(Daily Mail, 7 November 2006)
10th anniversary of the Reading
Recovery programme
In April 2000, education experts gathered in London to celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the Reading Recovery programme.
Schools using it say the intensive one-to-one programme
for youngsters with serious reading and writing problems yields
spectacular results. Yet thousands of children who would benefit
from it are not being given the opportunity since Government
funding support was withdrawn in 1995.
The scheme also suffers from being expensive - the initial
costs amount to nearly £1,000 per pupil, not including
the cost of training teachers. Yet headteachers who have used
it feel it provides excellent value for money, as an early
investment that pays off.
Reading Recovery selects pupils who are identified in the
first year of primary school as having made the least progress
in learning to read and write. They are then given a 20-week
course of intensive daily individual lessons by specially
trained teachers, which are tailored to their individual needs
and existing knowledge. After the programme, the child's progress
is monitored and further help given where needed.
New research shows a near 60% success rate in the national
curriculum key stage tests taken by participants at the age
of seven. Data collected on 1400 children who have taken part
shows that 57% achieved the national standard - level two
or above - in reading and 58% in writing in 1999.
More than 20,000 children have been involved in the programme
in Britain. The number of participating schools has been static
over the last two years, the scheme claims, largely because
of the competing demands of school budgets and a swathe of
new Government initiatives. According to the latest figures,
compiled in 1999, the programme is being offered by around
806 teachers in roughly the same number of schools, working
in 55 education authorities in England, Northern, Ireland,
Scotland, Wales and Jersey. In 1999, 5,136 children took part
in the scheme.
Contact the Reading Recovery Network, tel: 020 7612
6585; email: readrec@ioe.ac.uk or visit the Institute of Education's
website: http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=2733
(Guardian, 4 April 2000)
Budget shortfall threatens Reading
Recovery
Reading Recovery, a programme to help children who find reading
difficult, is under threat because schools can no longer afford
to run it. The 20-week, one-to-one intensive programme which
costs £1,000 per child, was devised for children who
cannot catch up with their peers through working in a group.
But the number of Reading Recovery teachers and the children
they help has fallen by 40% since 1998 - the year the National
Literacy Strategy was introduced.
A survey of one authority which had 96 Reading Recovery teachers
in 59 schools a decade ago, found that only 16 schools were
still running the programme, and six of these may drop it
in 2005.
Evaluations of the programme have found that children participating
in it made significantly more progress than those who had
no help. But studies differ in their views about how long
the effects last.
Reading Recovery was first developed by academics in New
Zealand. Surrey was the first English authority to introduce
the programme in 1990. In 1992, the Conservative government
provided £14.2 million over three years to introduce
the programme into schools in 20 authorities. But funding
was withdrawn after the three-year trial, and Labour's literacy
task force said it wanted research into whether Reading Recovery
was cost effective.
The National Literacy Strategy, in guidance issued to headteachers
in 2003, continues to recognise Reading Recovery as a valuable
support for those pupils who are not progressing in the literacy
hour or getting extra help in a group.
(TES, 21 May 2004)
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