Reading Recovery

Reading Recovery was established in Florence 1 Schools in 1991 with the training of a Teacher Leader at the Clemson University training site in Columbia, South Carolina. The next year, Reading Recovery expanded to training of teachers and service of children at each of the twelve elementary schools. Since that time, more than fifty teachers have been trained at the site and consulting services have been provided to twelve other school districts in addition to Florence One.

The goal has been to supplement classroom instruction with early intervention support for our most at-risk first grade students. Individual instruction has been provided to almost three thousand five hundred children at a substantial cost savings to the district since the majority of these children became successful readers and writers and were not retained in first grade.
 
As part of the training process, Reading Recovery teachers are involved in year-long inservice and attend conferences and virtual technology sessions as well as receive frequent support and problem solving vists from the teacher leader. These sessions provide ongoing professional development that enables the teachers to continuously reflect on their teaching practices and develop strengths as literacy leaders within their schools.