MADISON METROPOliTAN SCHOOl DISTRICT - School Information ...

Changes in Program Implementation 2011-2012
MMSD has a longstanding history of implementing the Reading Recovery program. In order to
maintain its effectiveness, the program continues to evolve. This adaptability is necessary for us to meet
the changing needs of our student population, to fit with building instructional designs, and to reflect our
district-wide system approach to responses to intervention. While being adaptive to change within our
district, an important responsibility of Reading Recovery is to maintain fidelity to the nation-wide
Reading Recovery Standards and Guidelines, so that we can assure that our implementation of the
program is indeed research-based.
This year, Reading Recovery teachers embraced two major changes in implementation. The
selection of student procedure was more clearly defined to include a much wider band of students. As
stated in our standards and guidelines, students were not excluded from the program due to behavior,
attendance, language development, or an already diagnosed learning disability. Reading Recovery sets
out to serve the students who need the intervention the most, and not necessarily those who will make
the greatest gains from the support. Serving harder-to-teach children, often with issues that create
challenges to learning, impacted our data.
The second change in program implementation had to do with the criteria used to classify the
student as "discontinued" at the end of their time in the program. Discontinuation is a term used within
our program to describe "reading proficiency". It implies that this student has reached a stage in literacy
development to make them self-sufficient and very likely to continue on as a proficient reader in
subsequent years. This "stage" can be determined most accurately by close analysis of the behaviors
the child exhibits in reading and writing instead of a benchmark text reading level that may have been
used in the past. While building this understanding amongst reading recovery teachers, our district
engaged in conversations with other school districts around the state of Wisconsin regarding proficiency
bands for text reading level at the first grade level, and the advised proficiency bands for students to
meet in order for them to be on track for college and career readiness in their future. Given both of these
discussions, the criteria for reading recovery students became more defined and overall, harder to
achieve than in previous years. This change also had significant impact on our data.
We trust that our district stakeholders of Reading Recovery will continue to support the decisions
made to allow our program to evolve and also maintain its fidelity.
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