Quay, L. C., Steele, D. C., Johnson, C. I., & Hortman, W. (2001). Literacy Teaching and Learning: An International Journal of Early Reading and Writing, 5(2), 7-25.

Background
Quay, Steele, Johnson, & Hortman compared Reading Recovery children in a Georgia school district with a control group who were equivalent in gender, ethnicity, and achievement.

Findings
“At the end of the school year, multivariate and univariate analyses of variance indicated that the Reading Recovery children were significantly superior to the control group children on (a) The Iowa Test of Basic Skills Language Tests; (b) The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test; (c) the six tests of An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement; (d) classroom teachers’ assessments of achievement in mathematics, oral communication, reading comprehension, and written expression; (e) classroom teachers’ ratings of personal and social growth in work habits, following directions, self-confidence, social interaction with adults, and social interaction with peers; and (f) promotion rates” (p. 7).

Comments
These results are especially significant considering that all teachers in this study were in their initial training year.

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This abstract first appeared in What Evidence Says About Reading Recovery (2002). Columbus, OH: Reading Recovery Council of North America.