Reading Recovery
Professional Development
Overview

Reading Recovery Professional
Development

"…As schools systematize and create more opportunities for serious staff development, the thoroughness of the Reading Recovery model seems to be well worth emulating."
— R. Herman and S. Stringfield

Administrators and policymakers understand the vital connection between highly qualified teachers and student achievement. A hallmark of Reading Recovery is the intensive, ongoing professional development for school-based teachers, site-based teacher leaders, and university-based trainers. Reading Recovery is an investment in the teachers who work with children having the greatest difficulty learning to read and write.

For all Reading Recovery professionals, a full academic year of initial professional development is followed in subsequent years by ongoing development sessions. The comprehensive staff development model ensures the quality of teaching and implementation in schools and systems. Integral to Reading Recovery professional development is the use of a one-way glass, with class members observing lessons and talking about a child’s behaviors and a teacher’s teaching decisions.

No packaged program can substitute for an informed teacher’s design and delivery of individual lessons for each child. In Reading Recovery, the teacher analyzes students’ strengths and needs, selects procedures and makes teaching decisions on the run, and assesses the results to inform her next teaching moves. This process takes skill and ongoing study, collaboration, and support.

For Teachers
A highly qualified teacher makes a difference in student outcomes, especially for children having difficulties. Reading Recovery’s initial professional development is a yearlong period of change as teachers learn to make decisions based on a child’s responses during individual teaching sessions.

For Teacher Leaders
Reading Recovery teacher leaders are key people with a complex role requiring a wide range of skills. They are leaders in their local districts where they teach children, train Reading Recovery teachers, maintain contact with past trainees, analyze and report student outcomes, educate local educators, advocate for what cannot be compromised, and communicate with the public.

For Trainers
Reading Recovery trainers are faculty members within an established university training center (UTC) or regional Canadian institute who are responsible for initial and ongoing professional development for teacher leaders, supporting a network of affiliated Reading Recovery teacher training sites, expanding and strengthening sites within the network, and ensuring the integrity of Reading Recovery within the region.

Ongoing
Ongoing professional development is at the heart of Reading Recovery’s success. This continued learning keeps professionals up-to-date on recent changes in Reading Recovery and ensures that professionals at all levels deepen their knowledge about implementation and teaching.

View a 4-minute video, including lessons taught behind a one-way mirror.

Quality Assurance
The Standards and Guidelines of Reading Recovery in the United States and The Canadian Institute of Reading Recovery Standards and Guidelines provide detailed information about professional development at all levels of Reading Recovery. Ongoing professional development, coupled with strict adherence to standards, assures the quality of Reading Recovery.

Reference
Herman, R. & Stringfield, S. (1997). Ten promising programs for educating all children: Evidence of impact. Arlington, VA: Educational Research Service.