Is Early Literacy Intervention Effective for English Language Learners? Evidence from Reading Recovery

Background
Ashdown and Simic examined the literacy achievement of 25,601 first-grade students who received Reading Recovery tutoring services from school year 1992-1993 to 1997-1998 in order to evaluate the performance of children in the group who were English language learners. The children in the Reading Recovery group were compared with a random sample group of 18,363 first graders drawn from the classroom population of children not identified as needing assistance and with a comparison group of 11,267 first-grade children who were in need of Reading Recovery but did not receive it because of a lack of resources. Contingency tables were used to examine program delivery, completion rates, and outcome status for three language groups. In addition, analysis of variance procedures were used to examine reading achievement measures by language group and three comparison samples.

Findings
Results of the study provide evidence that Reading Recovery tutoring produces similar outcomes for students with different levels of English proficiency and offers an appropriate solution for first graders experiencing problems in reading and writing.