Executive Summary

Resource Teachers of Literacy (RTLit) are specialist literacy teachers who support and assist staff in schools to meet the needs of years 1 to 8 students experiencing difficulties with literacy learning.

This summary of the 2013 RTLit monitoring data provides an overview of the number of students receiving RTLit assistance during 2013, the nature of the support provided, and the outcomes of students receiving support. Although monitoring was reduced in 2013, the high level findings are consistent with previous years' results.

RTLit were asked to complete a summary report covering all the students they worked with in 2013 and an overview form per cluster.

Key findings for 2013

RTLit support in 2012

• A total of 4,826 students were on the RTLit roll (compared with 4,530 in 2012 and 3,777 in 2011).
• The largest proportion of students (39%) received indirect support only (similar to the previous two years); about a third of students (36%) received both direct and indirect support, and a quarter (25%) received direct support only.

Student outcomes following RTLit support

• A little under half of  students (45%) were successfully discontinued because they had completed their programme of support, a further quarter (25%)  were rolled over to the next year with the expectation their support will continue, 16 per cent were referred on for further specialist support, and the remaining 14 per cent were withdrawn.
• RTLit were asked whether the texts students were able to read matched their current year level expectations. Over a quarter of students (28%) were reading at a level that matched their current year level expectations, a quarter (25%) were reading texts between six months to a year below their current year level expectation, a quarter (26%) were reading texts more than one year below current year level expectations, and the remaining fifth (20%) of students were reading at a level more than two years below expectations.