Teachers Endorse Reading Program

By CYNTHIA NEEDHAM Journal Staff Writer

WOONSOCKET – Four months ago, Kevin Vazquez didn’t know his ABCs. He was, by all accounts, the most troubled student in the first grade.

Last week, Kevin read a picture book by himself, sounding out each word with care.

His teacher beamed.

A once-troubled learner had flourished as a reader.

School officials attribute Kevin’s success to “Reading Recovery,” a rigorous, national program that helps struggling first graders like him get up to speed with their peers through daily one-on-one tutoring sessions.

In the last decade, 14 Rhode Island school districts and charter schools have taken part in Reading Recovery, funneling as many as 20 percent of their first graders into the program.

Supporters say it has saved countless students from academic failure and swollen special education programs, especially in districts such as Woonsocket, which boasts some of the highest special education referral rates statewide.

“It is a program that’s researched-based and produces unquestionably positive results,” Deputy Education Commissioner Todd Flaherty said.

But the program is expensive — as much as $5,000 per student for a 16-week course — causing some people to question if it’s really worth it.

Starting this semester, Reading Recovery officials in Rhode Island say they’ll launch their first-ever self-assessment, one they hope will prove the program’s long-term success rates statewide.

With the first crop of Reading Recovery students — the ones who took part in the program back in the early ’90s — now in their late teens, the data pool is nearly 10,000 strong — big enough for an accurate report card, said Patricia Z. Starnes, who oversees Reading Recovery programs in central and southern Rhode Island.

Using state testing data and reports from teachers, she and other leaders will begin collecting information to track their graduates’ progress from elementary school through high school to see whether early intervention translates to success in secondary school.

FOR MANY children, early academic troubles aren’t entirely academic.

Take Kevin Vazquez. Last year, he attended a bilingual kindergarten class in Providence, drifting his way through the year, absorbing almost none of the early reading exercises. Part of it may have been that Kevin is partially deaf in one ear, making it tough to pay attention in class. And his mom works two jobs, so she’s never had much time to read with him.

But this year, Kevin got luckier. His family moved to Woonsocket, where he enrolled at Aram J. Pothier Elementary School, a flagship school for Reading Recovery.

Each day since September, Kevin and his Reading Recovery teacher, Donna Barrette, have worked together for a half-hour, reading and writing in a quiet room. Of the 16 Pothier students participating in the intervention program, Kevin was considered the most in need of help.

What makes Pothier’s program so state-of-the art is a piece of equipment that few other Reading Recovery schools have: the two-way mirror.

Once reserved for police-station interrogations, the glass at Pothier was installed a few years ago as an observation tool. Several times a month, teachers from schools around Northern Rhode Island conduct their one-on-one sessions in a small classroom with a large, mirrored wall.

Behind the mirror, watching them, are other Reading Recovery teachers, who gather to evaluate the teacher and help assess the student, much like doctors do in observation bays of hospital operating rooms.

Last week, Sen. Lincoln Chafee stopped by to watch, and to learn more about Reading Recovery.

That morning, Kevin and Barrette made their way through “A Friend For Little White Rabbit,” stumbling here and there, while Chafee and the other reading teachers clustered behind the glass, noting his habits, good and bad.

He still mixes up his m’s and n’s sometimes, Northern Rhode Island’s teacher leader Julie Francis noted, but he’s getting the hang of the tougher adjectives.

After 16 weeks, Kevin is ready to graduate from the program. Like nearly 80 percent of participants, his is considered a success. He’s got work left to do, but he’s mastered the fundamentals of reading, putting him on par with his classmates.

“He has a wonderful sense of story,” Barrette said later. “One of these days he’s going to pick up a book and keep reading and I don’t think he’ll stop.”

As Kevin phases out of the program this month, 16 more children – - most of them first graders who fell behind during the fall semester — will begin one-on-one tutoring. Some first-semester students who didn’t improve quite so quickly will also continue.

Skeptics argue that Reading Recovery programs, though productive, are too expensive and help too few students. Schools such as Pothier have four certified Reading Recovery teachers, and each spends half the day working with just four students. Per-child costs can range from $3,400 to $5,300 plus training fees, Francis said. That’s about 50 percent more than most districts spend on conventional students.

In Woonsocket — as in many low-income districts — the program is paid for using federal Title I money. Most Woonsocket educators, including Supt. Maureen B. Macera, support the program, calling it a cost-saver.

That’s because Reading Recovery targets early learning problems, at times eliminating the need for costly Personal Literacy Plans or special education later on.

“We get a little nervous around the state when districts bend away from Reading Recovery and implement their own programs which are homegrown and not researched-based,” Flaherty said. “I always say to superintendents, ‘if you think you’re saving money, maybe on a threshold level you are, but if you keep passing kids on to the next grade who can’t read, you’re just going to get the bill on the other end.’”

Starnes said that’s why program officials want a self-study. Hard data demonstrating the benefits of Reading Recovery may help mollify critics, she reasons.

“We’ve had Reading Recovery long enough to see some of these kids graduate [from high school] but we’ve never tracked them,” Starnes said. “Now we want to look and see if we’re getting any payback down the road here in Rhode Island.” Studies in other states have show that academic gains are sustained at least through third grade, she said.

Here in Rhode Island, Starnes acknowledges that tracking will take some work. Classroom teachers must agree to report annually on how students are doing. With several thousand Reading Recovery graduates statewide, that’s a lot of tracking, and Starnes says the details are far from complete. Still, she hopes to amass at least some statistics by the end of this semester.

But in Kevin’s case, it doesn’t take data to see how much the program has helped him.

As he closed the final page of his book last week, he glanced up at his teacher, looking for approval.

She nuzzled against him, proud.

It was Kevin’s turn to beam.

cneedham@projo.com / (401) 277-7374

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Sen. Lincoln Chafee watches a Reading Recovery tutorial session with Woonsocket teacher Donna Barrette and first grader Kevin Vazquez at the Pothier Elementary School last week.

JOURNAL PHOTO / STEVE SZYDLOWSKI

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First grader Kevin Vazquez claps as he sounds out a word during a Reading Recovery session at the Pothier Elementary School in Woonsocket last week.

JOURNAL PHOTO / STEVE SZYDLOWSKI