Reading Recovery 20 Years Down the Track: Looking forward,looking back

Reading Recovery is an intensive literacy programme designed for young students who have been identified as being at‐risk of reading failure after 1 year of schooling. The intervention was developed and trialled in New Zealand over 20 years ago and is now implemented in a number of education systems. The focus of this article is on recent research into the operationalisation of the programme with an overview of what it has done well and what it has not done so well. Reading Recovery has been very successful in bringing about change on the political and teacher training levels. In terms of efficacy in remediating literacy difficulties, however, the findings are more equivocal. What we have learned from Reading Recovery may assist in the implementation of new interventions based on more contemporary research.     

Culturally responsive pedagogy: A New Zealand case study

Abstract

This paper examines the justification for a culturally responsive educational initiative to raise the educational underachievement of Māori students in New Zealand. The initiative is justified by claims that the recognition in the classroom of a student’s cultural identity will lead to the student’s educational achievement. Using an account of a small study of teachers and their beliefs regarding New Zealand’s culturally responsive educational policy Kia Eke Panuku, we argue that such a claim is not established and it is the development of an epistemic identity which is more likely to be the means for Māori to attain educational success.     

Reading Recovery: Exploring the Effects on First-Graders' Reading Motivation and Achievement

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effects of Reading Recovery on children's motivational levels, and how motivation may contribute to the effect of the intervention on literacy achievement. Prior studies concluded that Reading Recovery was positively associated with increased student motivation levels, but most of those studies were limited methodologically. The achievement and motivation levels before and after the intervention of Reading Recovery students and similarly low-performing first-grade students were compared using structural equation modeling. It was found that Reading Recovery had a .31 treatment effect on achievement after controlling for baseline achievement and motivational differences among the treatment and comparison students. Reading Recovery also was associated with greater average levels of posttest motivation, and motivation was found to mediate the treatment-achievement relationship. This study highlights how important it is for early reading interventions to consider the role motivation plays in literacy acquisition.     

Is Reading Recovery sustainable two to four years after discontinuation?

The Reading Recovery programme has been a key early literacy intervention in many international contexts for over two decades. As a consequence, there have been numerous investigations into its efficacy for short-term gains, but only a few on long-term sustainability. This study examines the progress of 95 Year 4–6 students from seven schools in the rural hinterland of New Zealand. Standardised data were collected from students who had been successfully discontinued from Reading Recovery two to four years previously and compared them with mean performance from the same school populations. Results showed that only Year 6 students obtained the mean scores which placed them within the national average range. Our results also showed that whilst almost half of the ex-Reading Recovery students we studied, fell within the average band, 45% were classified as well below average.     

‘Meeting initial needs in literacy’ (MINILIT): A ramp to MULTILIT for younger low‐progress readers

Abstract

In spite of serious reservations expressed by reading scientists regarding both its efficacy and its cost effectiveness, for over 20 years Reading Recovery has been promoted internationally as the intervention of choice for young struggling readers. Following a brief review of research on Reading Recovery, several suggestions for improvement are suggested. An alternative small group‐based instructional model (MINILIT) is then described. This provides additional focus on phonemic awareness and allows access to the MULTILIT program for younger struggling readers. The results from two preliminary pilot studies are presented.     

Getting to Scale: Evidence,Professionalism, and Community

ABSTRACT

Evidence-based reform, in which proven programs are scaled up to reach many students, is playing an increasing role in American education. This article summarizes articles in this issue to explain how Reading Recovery has managed to sustain itself and go to scale over more than 30 years. It argues that Reading Recovery has succeeded due to a focus on evidence, professionalism, and community. Implications of the experience of Reading Recovery for policy and practice are discussed.     

The effect of reading recovery® on special education referrals and placements

This study examined the effect of Reading Recovery®, an early intervention program for first‐grade children, on the rates of referral and placement in special education in New York City. Study participants consisted of students who had a complete Reading Recovery (RR) program (RR‐discontinued and RR‐recommended) and a comparison group composed of children with literacy difficulties, who were initially performing at a slightly higher level than the Reading Recovery children. The results showed that children who received the Reading Recovery program were referred for testing and placed in special education at a statistically significant lower rate. Reading Recovery is associated with a 5% reduction in estimated referral rate and a 3% decrease in placement rate. Additionally, an examination of the classification labels of children placed in special education revealed that RR‐discontinued children were less likely to be classified as learning disabled than those in both the comparison group and the RR‐recommended group. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 39: 635–646, 2002.     

The Relative Effect of a Code-Oriented and a Meaning-Oriented Early Literacy Program on Regular and Low Progress Australian Students in Year 1 Classrooms which Implement Reading Recovery

A within-school study of the effects of two different early literacy instructional programs on the reading proficiency of Year 1 students was undertaken in three schools in New South Wales, Australia all of which used Reading Recovery. The first program under examination was a "meaning"-oriented program used by six Kindergarten and Year 1 classrooms in the three schools. The second program, a "code"-oriented one, was implemented in the same six Kindergarten and Year 1 classrooms one year later. The code-oriented program, known as Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL), stresses the explicit instruction of phonological awareness and the alphabetic code in context. All students, including both regular and Reading Recovery students, in the six non-SWELL classrooms were tested on four early literacy measures at the end of Year 1 when they had completed two years of schooling (comparison group). At the end of the following year, all Year 1 students in the six SWELL classrooms were tested on the same early literacy measures, when they had completed two years of schooling (experimental group). Results indicated that all regular and Reading Recovery students in SWELL classes significantly outperformed their regular and Reading Recovery counterparts in non-SWELL classes on tests measuring pseudoword decoding, reading connected text, invented spelling, and a standardised reading measure at the end of Year 1. However, Reading Recovery students as a group, whether in SWELL or non-SWELL classes, did not reach the average level of their peers on any of the four literacy measures used. Implications for the most effective combination of whole-class and tutorial programs for children at-risk of literacy failure are considered in the discussion.     

From unbundling to market making: reimagining,reassembling and reinventing the public university

ABSTRACT

In Britain and New Zealand the neoliberal assault on universities has shifted from new public management and funding models to the special status of the public university. The project aims to complete neoliberal business initiated 25 years ago by more fully marketising and financialising universities, starting with ‘unbundling’ and outsourcing and culminating in new forms of privatisation, rent-extraction and rebundling. This paper analyses two documents commissioned beyond government to create political momentum for this project: Avalanche is Coming and The University of the Future. These both capture the zeitgeist of reform while simultaneously creating the university futures that they portend. We examine the market-making work they perform in reimagining and reinventing universities ahead of policy reform. We argue that claims made to support fundamental restructuring of public universities lack substance or evidence. Rather, each is underpinned by different configurations of ideology and self-interest that together envelope universities in new agendas of marketisation, financialisation and privatisation. We suggest that in this latest restructuring of public universities critics should pay more attention to the work of consultancies and think tanks alongside the micro-details of market making. By doing so, they too might reimagine public universities, but for a different political project.     

Commentary: Advances in research on sourcing—source credibility and reliable processes for producing knowledge claims

In our commentary on this excellent set of articles on Sourcing in the Reading Process, we endeavor to synthesize the findings from the seven articles and discuss future research. We discuss significant contributions related to source memory, source evaluation, use of sources in action and belief, integration of information from multiple sources, and instruction in sourcing. Next we discuss several issues for future research raised by these articles, including expert sourcing, embedded sources, epistemic justice, and explanations of disagreement. Finally, we argue that the credibility of sources and their claims is determined by the reliability of the processes used by the sources to produce their claims. Our focus on the reliability of processes used by sources has implications for understanding sourcing processes, for evaluating normative claims about which sources are most reliable, for explaining how people evaluate sources, and for developing instruction on sourcing.     

Encouraging transformation and action competence: A Theory of Change evaluation of a sustainability leadership program for high school students

Abstract

Make a Difference (MAD) is a sustainability leadership program for high school students in Auckland, New Zealand. It offers a residential camp and follow-up activities. This article documents a participatory, utilization-focused evaluation of MAD, based on a Theory of Change approach. We ran workshops with MAD coordinators and students and conducted a survey with previous participants. This identified the core developmental and action outcomes of MAD, and the role of transformation and action competence in inspiring change. We discuss the benefits and limitations of both MAD and our evaluation approach and offer recommendations for others working on youth sustainability programs.     

A Critical Analysis of the Sources of Reading Recovery: An Empiricist Perspective

This discussion of the sources of Reading Recovery presents the results of an investigation into whether or not this relatively costly, tutoring remedial reading program, designed for primary-grade students, is based on relevant experimental evidence as to how these students best learn to read. The general finding of the study was that Reading Recovery principles and practices are not based firmly on the experimental evidence that supports the so-called bottom-up model of children's reading development. To the contrary of Reading Recovery, Marie Clay, favors so-called top-down principles and models of reading instruction. Reading Recovery uses several empirically unverified procedures to decide which students are admitted to its tutoring sessions, to determine the progress in reading rehabilitation these tutees make, and to judge when students should be discontinued from Reading Recovery tutelage. The details on the shortcomings of Reading Recovery are judged to be prima facie evidence that it may not be a cost-effective educational innovation. Further authentication in that regard, it is pointed out, are recent studies by disinterested researchers who report that: (a) the initial successes of Reading Recovery in helping disabled readers overcome their handicap are only temporary in nature, and (b) the majority of the precepts and procedures prescribed for Reading Recovery by Marie Clay reflect a top-down orientation to reading development, as does the Whole Language (WL) philosophy of reading attainment. Educators and school boards should take this orientation of Reading Recovery under advisement when considering its purchase, it is urged.     

Considering research paradigms in environmental education

The benefits of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methodologies are often emphasized in undergraduate and graduate training about producing and analysing data. Less often discussed are the philosophies of research that can be used to explore environmental education. To help introduce students to the ways such paradigms lead to different insights and lines of inquiry, we offer a supplementary reading of a natural resource management program seen through the lenses of four different research philosophies. The program engages biological and social scientists as they work to increase native biodiversity in Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand and share successes with other regions. We argue that the benefits of training students to appreciate research possibilities via multiple research paradigms could improve the way we work together and collaborate with colleagues in other disciplines. Students are better equipped to select, develop, and defend appropriate research questions and paradigms. Also, the potential for environmental education research activity that complements project-specific data collection is great, as with most natural resource projects. In sum, improving our collective awareness of paradigmatic perspectives will help improve communication and understanding as we all work in the transformation of education, ecosystems and human communities.     

Innovative learning environments and new materialism: A conjunctural analysis of pedagogic spaces

Abstract

An Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development research priority, innovative learning environments (ILEs) have been translated into policy and practice in 25 countries around the world. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, learning spaces are being reconceptualised in relation to this policy work by school leaders who are confronted by an impetus to lead pedagogic change. The article contributes a conjunctural analysis of the milieu around the redesign of these education facilities. Recognising that bodies and objects entwine in pedagogic spaces, we contribute a new materialism reading of ILEs as these are instantiated in New Zealand. New materialism recognises the agential nature of matter and questions the anthropocentric narrative that frames the post-enlightenment conception of what it means to be human. The decentring of human subjects through a materialist ontology facilitates a consideration of the power of objects to affect the spatial politics of learning environments. The article traces a relationship between the New Zealand strategic plan for Education 2015–2021 and principal conceptions of ILE as the lived spaces of this policy actualisation and the disciplinary/control society conjuncture. Informed by theories of spatial practice, we argue that principals’ understandings of ‘space’ are integral to pedagogic approaches within open-plan spaces. A conjunctural analysis can expand the capacity to act politically. By examining the complex conditions of a political intervention, in this case ILEs, we trace the displacements and condensations of different sorts of contradictions, and thus open up possibilities for action.     

A pilot study of the Australasian Readwell program

Abstract

The “Readwell” program is an Australian‐designed approach to remediation of children's reading difficulties. Although used in most Australian states, the program has not been evaluated. This quasi‐experimental pilot study reports on a first phase of an evaluation of the program. It involves a preliminary examination of the program with a group of 18 grade six and seven students with significant reading delays. It was conducted over a ten‐week period during which students received 45‐minute group instruction with the Readwell program each day. In addition, interviews with the students and their teachers were conducted to examine perceived outcomes of the program. Surveys with selected parents of students who had completed the program 12 months previously were also conducted to gauge the endurance of students’ gains in reading competence. Some comparisons with the literature reporting on Reading Recovery programs are also included and some initial conclusions are draw in relation to the place of the Readwell program in remediation practices for students with a reading difficulty.     

Reading Recovery in Context: implementation and outcome

Reading Recovery is a school‐based preventive strategy designed to reduce the number of children with reading and writing difficulties. This study evaluated the implementation of Reading Recovery in 12 New Zealand schools. Target (Reading Recovery) and Comparison pairs of children were identified through the Reading Recovery procedures operated by each school. Results indicated that very few schools adhered closely to all recommended entry and discontinuation criteria. Results for Target and Comparison children's reading progress up to the time of discontinuation are highly consistent with results reported by Clay (1985), with clear gains in favour of Target children. However, these gains had reduced considerably by the time of follow‐up. Data suggest that programme gains were greatest for children entering the programme at the lowest reading levels. Outcomes are discussed in terms of the need for better articulation between Reading Recovery teachers and regular classroom teachers.     

Reading Recovery as an Epistemic Community

ABSTRACT

This introduction to the special issue on Reading Recovery situates the enterprise in a broader educational reform context that has placed a priority on developing and fielding large-scale, systemic interventions that support ambitious instructional practice and student outcomes. Within this context, Reading Recovery is examined as an evolving, adaptive epistemic community in which tutors, teachers, leaders, coaches, and developers collaborate to produce, use, and refine the practical knowledge needed to support and sustain success among large numbers of struggling readers. Viewing Reading Recovery as an epistemic community provides a framework for more deeply engaging the articles in this special issue, for reflecting on Reading Recovery's history of success, and for speculating about Reading Recovery's future in rapidly evolving policy and reform contexts.     

Welfare Labourism versus the New Right: the struggle in New Zealand's education policy

ABSTRACT

New Zealand's radical education reforms (1987‐1990) provide a valuable case study for the examination of the politics, ideology and process of educational change. This paper examines the strategy of New Right agencies in attacking the established education settlement which embodies principles of Welfare Labourism. The crucial role of the New Zealand Treasury and of other agencies in bringing this settlement to crisis in the 1980s is analysed and discussed as is the response of the Labour Government. Many of the elements of struggle between Welfare Labourism and New Right market doctrines in education show similar features to struggles in other contexts such as the United Kingdom. However, the struggle in New Zealand makes visible and explicit the political and ideological features in a distinctive way. It also makes visible the significance of both race relations and of gender relations in the formation of education policy.     

Starting and Sustaining an Undergraduate Research Program: The SURIEM Experience at Michigan State University

Abstract

Mentoring undergraduate students in research is both rewarding and challenging. In this paper we present how we established a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in the mathematical sciences at Michigan State University. A goal of our REU is to include students who are at an early stage of their study of mathematics. We share our experiences in recruiting students, designing research projects, and mentoring our participants. We discuss the challenges we faced and the solutions we found while working with a diverse group of undergraduate students from across the nation.     

An investigation into the English language experiences of Indian international students studying in New Zealand universities

ABSTRACT

Language proficiency is highlighted in the literature on the adjustment and security of international students. India is the second top source country for mobile students globally, but few studies have focused explicitly on students from India. The purpose of this study was to examine the English language experiences of Indian students at New Zealand universities. This mixed-method study utilised a questionnaire (n?=?109) and interviews (n?=?15). Collectively the participants had high levels of confidence and proficiency in English language and adjusted more rapidly than many international students to the new academic environment. Major differences experienced by the participants between India and New Zealand related to unfamiliar forms of academic writing and tasks, and on the role of learning support services. Formal high value assessment was for some the first indication of a problem with writing. While most students adjusted through error-based learning others struggled with argumentation and avoiding plagiarism. These findings have relevance for local and international students. We recommend the use of, and research on, early low-stakes assessment of writing and on effective support services for students transitioning into new academic contexts.