The sustainability of gains in reading measures of Spanish -speaking children who experience Reading Recovery: A four -year retrospective quasi-experimental study

This retrospective study investigated whether second-language students in a low-income, inner-city, K–4 elementary school in a Spanish speaking community—who receive Reading Recovery (RR) intervention in first grade—reach higher average reading proficiency levels at the end of first grade, and, subsequently, whether their gains are sustained into fourth grade. A quasi-experimental research design compared students receiving Reading Recovery to a control group of students who met eligibility criteria, but were not served due to limited resources. Reading achievement data was gathered for four cohorts from 1999–2003. The research questions were: (1) To what extent does a selected group of second-language Reading Recovery served experimental children reach average proficiency levels in reading at the end of first grade as measured by the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (OS)? (2) What level on the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) do these experimental served children reach as compared with control children assigned to a wait list who have not experienced Reading Recovery? (3) How do these served children compare with wait list children on the TerraNova standardized test at the end of grades 1, 2, 3, and 4? How do these served children compare with wait list children on the Botel Reading Milestone Tests (BRMT) in grades 1, 2, 3 and 4? The first research question examined whether the program effectively accelerated the reading of the participants. In this respect the program was quite successful. Only in the first year did more than one student fail to meet discontinuation standards, and the three referred students all made some progress in reading. For the second year, all eight students were discontinued, and in the third and fourth years, only one student was referred for further evaluation each year. Students who received intervention scored in the average or above average range on the DRA as compared to students on the wait list who scored below average, with the exception of the 2002–2003 cohort. Results were inconsistent for TerraNova and BRMT