The Literacy Trust, Inc. 

           In nearly every first grade there are students who have the ability to develop fluent reading, but who will not succeed in a small group; such children require skilled, one-on-one teaching. Despite the presence of such students, only a minority of public schools provides skilled tutoring during the regular school day.

           Cost is often cited as a factor but tutoring need not be cost prohibitive. When provided by Reading Rescue-trained paraprofessionals or teaching assistants, who have other assignments in the school, the per child cost is far less than when tutoring is delivered by a certified teacher. And, when a principal can modify a school’s schedule to make it possible for classroom teachers to provide tutoring for students failing to read in small groups, there are no additional salary costs.

 

          Since the 1980’s, a small percent of privileged first graders have received one-on-one, daily tutor during the regular school day from highly trained Reading Recovery teachers who are employed to tutor at an estimated cost of between $2,000 and $9,000 per child, per year. Very often, the wealthier schools in a district will be those with the resources to employ a Reading Recovery teacher while others in the same district cannot. Schools with only one Recovery teacher on their staff often find that s/he rarely has enough time in the day to tutor all the children who need skilled tutoring to succeed. Reading Rescue was developed as a low cost, feasible and effective alternative - one with the potential to serve far more students in a school.

          Research shows that the great majority of students who don’t learn to read fluently in first grade continue to struggle throughout their school careers and are at much higher risk for unemployment, homelessness, incarceration and early pregnancy. Some states now estimate their prison budgets based on second grade reading scores; failure to learn to read well in first grade has dire long-term consequences for the individual and for society.

         Two factors limit many schools' ability to help failing first and second graders succeed: a lack of specialized knowledge and pedagogical skill, and teaching children in groups while failing to provide skilled, one-on-one tutoring for the small proportion who need it.  How to equip staff to deliver effective instruction for groups, and skilled one-on-one tutoring economically during the school day, (when the students who need tutoring the most are there to receive and not too tired to benefit from it) is a challenge facing every school in the nation and one that Reading Rescue is helping its schools solve.  

 

 

“Statistics show that 80% to 90% of children in public schools who are unable to read by the end of first grade will never learn to read well.”

 Juel, C. (1988) Learning to read and write.Journal of Educational Psychology, 80 (4), 437-47.

“Many children with difficulty in learning to read develop a negative self-concept within their first two years of schooling.”

 Chapman, J.W., Tunmer, W.E., & Prochnow, J.E. (2000). Early reading-related skills and performance, reading self-concept, and the development of academic self-concept: A longitudinal study.Journal of Educational Psychology, 92 , 4, 703708.

 

If a child is a struggling reader at  the end of first grade, consider the  options:

• Retention?  Only 20% do better, 20% do worse, 60% do about the

• Promotion? Most who enter second grade reading below grade level never catch up.