United Kingdom Literacy News 2008

New programme shown to 'dramatically' improve children's literacy

Pupils struggling with reading are benefiting from a new scheme that sees them improving their literacy with one-to-one support from specially-trained teachers.

Under the Reading Recovery programme, not only are children catching-up with their peers after a relatively short amount of time, but they are outperforming the national average for their age group within two years, according to research.

Tailored lessons for half-an-hour a day for between 12 and 20 weeks are provided to six-year-olds who have shown literacy problems.

Part of the government's Every Child a Reader programme, the initiative has been hailed a great success.

UK Literacy Investment Produces Results
An investment aimed at preventing literacy difficulties for beginning readers is producing outstanding results in Great Britain. Every Child a Reader, a project using Reading Recovery, released its third-year results for more than 5,000 struggling students taught in 2007-2008. The project targeted schools in areas of high economic need and selected children with the lowest literacy levels. The third year report revealed that among children who completed Reading Recovery lessons, 77% reached a literacy level that matched their chronological age. These children advanced at four time the normal progress rate with just 41 hours of instruction.

On the basis of the three-year pilot study, the report concludes that the project can continue to deliver reliable results as it scales up. A national rollout of the Every Child a Reader program has begun with plans to reach more than 30,000 students a year by 2011.

Every Child a Reader: The Results of the Third Year�
This 67-page evaluation report is the culmination of a three-year pilot project that that served 489 schools and trained 520 Reading Recovery teachers. The report focuses on results for the more than 5000 children taught in 2007-2008.

An End to Literacy Failure: Follow-Up on London Comparison Study
A 2007 follow up study of students in 42 London Schools found that former Reading Recovery students caught up with their peers and were out-performing the national average within two years.

Read the full 52-page report, Comparison of Literacy Progress of Young Children in London Schools: A Reading Recovery Follow-Up Story.

Find May 9, 2008 news stories about the follow-up study.

The Long-Term Costs of Literacy Difficulties
Ground breaking research from the KPMG Foundation charitable Trust calculates for the first time, the cost to the public purse of 38,700 pupils in England and Wales leaving primary schools every year with very low literacy skills.

See BBC Online News Report

Every Child A Reader: The results of the first year�
Research on more than 500 children in 2005-2006 showed massive gains in reading ability for students who received Reading Recovery support through Great Britain�s Every Child a Reader Project.

Download the research summary.

Read Background on the Every Child a Reader Project