There’s no magic to Reading Recovery, but such attention to detail could transform more than first grade reading ability.
Getting students to read and write before they fall behind and doom themselves to a lifelong struggle leading to dropping out is, of course, Reading Recovery’s primary purpose.
Reading is fundamental to success in any endeavor.
Seeing tangible gains from the short-term intervention of one-on-one tutoring for low achievers energizes their teachers.
Teachers are the front line. Without their support and enthusiasm, things like bond issues for new high schools tend not to pass.
Too often, lately, against a backdrop of constant recessionary cutting, educators are in a defensive crouch, surrounded by critics of public education.
It must be hard to do your best work dogged at every turn by distractions.
To see a discussion about learning break out at a school board meeting is refreshing and too infrequent — particularly proud teachers in matching, privately-funded T-shirts, which promote a team unity feeling.
Reading Recovery gives Dowagiac something to rally around and an identity to build on in other ways, just as half-hour daily lessons for 20 weeks with a specially-trained teacher do for students.
From one teacher at Kincheloe in 2008, Dowagiac vaulted into the vanguard in Michigan as one of 13 districts qualified as a training site for others. Its hub is now situated at Patrick Hamilton.
Investing in this program takes a combination of federal, state and local funding, but the expense seems well worth it because the priorities are in the right order with Reading Recovery, which has a more than 30-year-track record.
Students are rescued early on, before bad habits become hard-wired.
Whatever the cost upfront, it’s more expensive in the long run if kids slip through cracks.