What is the effect of Reading Recovery on grade retention and special education placement?
Researchers have also examined Reading Recoverys ability to reduce first grade retentions, the need for further remediation, and the number of students classified as learning disabled, with positive results. Lyons, Pinnell, and DeFord (1993) documented the experience of a district that reduced its first grade retention rate significantly in the five years following the implementation of Reading Recovery, which resulted in considerable savings. Another study found that the first grade retention rate in a school district that had implemented Reading Recovery dropped from 4.3 percent in the three years before implementation to 2.9 percent four years after implementation. It also showed that the district reduced its enrollment in learning disabilities classrooms at the end of first grade in the three years before full implementations to .64 percent three years after implementation (Lyons & Beaver, 1994). In a California study (Colton Joint Unified School District, 1996), the number of chil
