Reading Recovery program may be victim of reduced school board budgets

A dark day is dawning for struggling readers in Santa Rosa County (SRC) schools. The Reading Recovery Program, which has been a safety net for young children for the past 10 years, is being terminated at the end of this school year.

Reading Recovery is an early intervention, one-on-one tutorial program for first grade students who are the lowest literacy performers at their schools. Well trained, highly qualified Reading Recovery teachers who work with these students provide intensive 30 minute lessons daily for up to 20 weeks. After 50 minutes of instruction (a little more than two days), about 75 percent of Reading Recovery students are caught up to the average students in their classes and don't require further help. They are recovered. The reading and writing strategies they learn stay with them throughout their school years and they usually don't need remediation.

Compared to other programs, Reading Recovery is a miracle worker. Remediation programs delivered to small groups just don't measure up. More often than not, children in remediation groups spend years trying to catch up to their peers and don't ever make it. It's the undivided, individual attention and on-going teacher training that makes Reading Recovery so effective.

I'll give you an analogy that will clarify what I'm saying. Let's say you have a severe medical problem. You go to your doctor for help. He says he no longer treats individuals, but will include you in a group of patients who have similar severe medical problems. Do you think you'd get the attention you need to cure you specific illness? How would you feel about being put through a number of tests just because the group is being given the tests? His treatment would not be nearly as effective as the doctor who would look at your specific problems. Reading Recovery is a program that addresses specific needs of individual children with severe reading problems.

SRC school leaders are willing to let Reading Recovery go in spite of the fantastic results it produces. Before this program was adopted, 20 percent of SRC first graders were scoring below the 20th percentile in reading on the Stanford 9 test. After Reading Recovery became a part of the early literacy program, very few first graders have scored below the 30th percentile in reading. As a matter of fact, for many years our schools have ranked number one in Florida on reading performance. It will be interesting to see what happens to test scores next spring (2009) without Reading Recovery helping the most literacy-deficient children.

The county supervisors think Reading Recovery is too expensive. I think the cost of a child learning to read and write priceless. Last year, 26 Reading Recovery teachers served 800 children. In addition to the oneon one instruction provided for Reading Recovery students, we were able to touch the lives of many other children, as well. Our expert training and teaching skills have benefited thousands of children. Reading Recovery has saved them from an illiterate future, school failure, and defeated self-esteem.

It is my sincere hope that county officials will reconsider their decision to eliminate Reading Recovery. I'm not writing this for personal reasons, but because I am concerned for all the children in the future who will need this program and it won't be here for them.

I appeal to parents of children who have had Reading Recovery, to children who have had Reading Recovery and to classroom teachers who have seen the difference Reading Recovery makes to please write letters of support to school board members, Superintendent Rogers and this newspaper. Perhaps with your testimonies, somebody will listen.