Annual Monitoring of Reading Recovery: the Data for 2007

Method

The 2007 Reading Recovery data collection took place throughout the year, with schools able to submit their data either electronically or via paper survey forms. Note that as with previous years, schools were encouraged to submit their data electronically.

Schools submitted data via both individual student reports and overall school reports. Individual student reports, which were submitted for each student that took part in Reading Recovery, gathered information about the demographic characteristics of the student and their progress in the intervention. Each school also submitted an end-of-year school report which gathered information about the number of hours and teachers allocated to Reading Recovery for the year.

Schools were asked to submit their returns by 14 December 2007. Reading Recovery tutors and SiliconCoach (Reading Recovery database administrator) reminded and assisted schools to submit their data.

Through the electronic data collection system, Reading Recovery teachers could post information about students as soon as they exited the intervention. At the end of the year, when all individual student reports had been entered by the teacher(s), the principal was asked to confirm this information and, in addition, complete the end-of-year school report¹ . Once this process was completed, Reading Recovery tutors were able to electronically check the data entered by teachers and/or principals. It should be noted that not all schools that submitted individual student reports subsequently confirmed these reports,²  or submitted their end-of-year school reports.

Schools opting to respond by paper returns were asked to submit their data to their Reading Recovery tutors for checking purposes, who then forwarded the forms to the Ministry of Education.

In 2007, the Ministry of Education received 10,739 individual student reports and, through the school reports, a further 38 students were identified as having participated in Reading Recovery³. Additionally, a total of 1,232 school reports were received, and a further 70 schools were identified as Reading Recovery schools as a result of student reports being submitted from these schools. Consequently, a total of 10,777 students and a total of 1,302 schools were involved in Reading Recovery during 2007.

Footnotes

1. Note that some principals delegate the task of completing the school report and/or confirming the individual student reports to the Reading Recovery teacher or another senior staff member.
2. Of the 1,232 school reports that were received in 2007, 31 had not completed the confirmation process. Data from these reports have been included in the analyses.
3. These students were identified by eleven schools where the number of students reported to be in Reading Recovery on their school report was greater than the actual number of individual student reports received.