2005-06 - Reading Recovery Council of North America

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Helping Struggling First Graders and Teachers Achieve Success
Connie Briggs, Emporia State University
The title of this year’s annual report,
“A Year of Challenges and Achievement,”
is especially appropriate because these
themes have always been at the heart of
Reading Recovery. We teach the most
challenging children—those in the bottom 20% of their
class in literacy learning. Yet with Reading Recovery,
three-fourths of children who complete lessons will
achieve grade-level standard in just 12 to 20 weeks.
For those who do not reach grade-level standard, the
diagnostic information from Reading Recovery lessons
helps school officials make good decisions about their
future schooling. This is a remarkable achievement for
students, teachers, and schools.
At the heart of this achievement is Reading Recovery’s
in-depth professional development program. Our
professional development network is guided by faculty
at 22 universities in North America who train teacher
leaders. These teacher leaders oversee professional
development of Reading Recovery teachers in about
450 training sites operated by local schools and
education agencies. Reading Recovery teachers receive
graduate credit for their year-long training, and they
continue to attend professional development during the
entire time they are teaching in Reading Recovery.
During the 2006 year, Reading Recovery professionals
began study of a new, two-volume
guidebook by Marie Clay entitled
Literacy Lessons Designed for
Individuals Part One and Part Two.
The work builds on Reading
Recovery’s success and expands our
thinking about how individual
literacy lessons may be applied
to other populations. The Reading
Recovery community worldwide
is using this new
resource in Reading
Recovery lessons and
considering other ways to
help individuals who struggle
with literacy learning.
Reading Recovery is a highly effective short-term
intervention of one-to-one tutoring for the lowest-achieving
first graders. Since Reading Recovery began in 1984 in
Canada and the United States, more than 1.6 million first
graders have been served.
The Reading Recovery Council of North America, Inc.
(RRCNA) is a not-for-profit association of Reading Recovery
professionals, advocates, and partners established in 1993
to sustain the integrity of Reading Recovery and expand its
implementation by increasing the number of individuals
who understand, support, and collaborate to achieve the
mission of the Council. To accomplish this goal, RRCNA
provides a wide variety of programs and services, including
publications, annual conferences, special institutes and
academies and additional resources for members.
Today, RRCNA has approximately 8,000 members
including Reading Recovery professionals and partners
who are classroom teachers, early literacy educators, Title I
teachers, school principals and administrators, school
board members, researchers, parents, and community
members. Governed by a volunteer board of directors,
which includes representatives of the Canadian Institute
of Reading Recovery and Descubriendo la Lectura,
membership is open to anyone interested in Reading
Recovery and early literacy.
The Reading Recovery Fund is the charitable fund of the
Reading Recovery Council of North America. The role of
the fund is to advance early literacy through the expansion
of Reading Recovery in support of the strategic plan
adopted by the board of RRCNA.
READING RECOVERY COUNCIL OF NORTH AMERICA 2005–2006 ANNUAL REPORT 3