Executive Summary

The key findings for the 2007 Annual Monitoring of Reading Recovery report are as follows:

• In 2007, two-thirds (67%) of all state and state-integrated schools offered Reading Recovery (comparable to 65% in 2006 and 67% in 2005). As a result, Reading Recovery was accessible to 76 percent of the total six-year-old population (comparable to 76% in 2006 and 78% in 2005).
• Approximately one in seven (14%) six-year-old students attending state and state-integrated schools entered Reading Recovery in 2007 (comparable to 14% in 2006 and 15% in 2005). The total number of students in Reading Recovery has also remained fairly constant over the past few years (10,777 students in 2007; 10,757 students in 2006 and 11,054 students in 2005).
• Reading Recovery was more widely available in high decile schools but where offered, lower decile schools provided Reading Recovery to proportionately more students.
• Demographically, there were proportionately more boys, Māori and Pasifika students in Reading Recovery during 2007 than there were girls, Asian and NZ European students. Despite this, Māori and Pasifika students were less likely to have access (i.e. less likely to attend schools where Reading Recovery was offered) overall.
• More than half (58%) of all students in Reading Recovery successfully discontinued their series of lessons by the end of 2007. A further one-quarter (24%) of students were carried over to 2008 while almost one in ten (9%) were referred on for specialist help or long-term reading support.
• Girls, Asian and NZ European students, and those from high decile schools were more likely to have successfully discontinued their series of Reading Recovery lessons than boys, Māori and Pasifika students and those from lower decile schools (who were more likely to be referred on for further support). It is important to note however, that many students in these latter groups did in fact achieve the levels required to successfully discontinue their Reading Recovery lessons.
• In cases where students successfully discontinued their series of lessons, Māori and Pasifika students, and those from lower decile schools exhibited greater gains in reading and writing. These greater gains are associated with a tendency for these students to have lower scores upon entry.
• In cases where students were referred on, those from higher decile schools tended to have both higher entry and exit scores than those from lower decile schools. It should be noted that students from higher decile schools had attended more Reading Recovery sessions than those from lower deciles schools.