Reading Recovery: How Much Does It Cost? Christy Wall Harrelson Dr. G. Geer EDAD 684: School Finance-Ethics Spring 2011

What is Reading Recovery? Early intervention for struggling emerging readers (the bottom 20% of the first grade class) For first grade students only One-on-one Provided by a trained, highly-certified teacher weeks of instruction and intervention 30 minutes of daily instruction Supplements rather than replaces classroom reading instruction (in ADDITION TO what students are already receiving, not in place of) Data-driven

A typical Reading Recovery lesson consists of… Familiar re-reads (reading familiar books for fluency and comprehension) Reading the book from the previous day’s lesson to complete a running record (data collection) Working with magnetic letters and words (sound and spelling patterns) Writing a story Putting together a cut-up story (structured language) Introducing and reading a new book

Vision and Goals: Why Reading Recovery? “The goal of Reading Recovery is to dramatically reduce the number of first-grade students who have extreme difficulty learning to read and write and to reduce the cost of these learners to educational systems.” -Reading Recovery: Basic Facts

What does this have to do with us? We want the most bang for our buck. Reading Recovery produces consistent results in a short amount of time (81% of students graduating from the program in South Carolina in the school year reached or surpassed grade level performance). Early interventions help prevent the effects of low performance such as… –truancy, –continued poor performance, –increases in the number of students labeled with learning disabilities, –increases in the needs for special support staff to address learning difficulties later on, –increases in drop-out rates, –“reduced employment opportunities” (from –and involvement in criminal behavior.

So…how much does it cost?

Let’s compare… A cost comparison example: Calculations for estimated annual per-pupil cost based on a teacher salary and benefits of $60,000 annually. - From “Reading Recovery Is Cost Effective” INTERVENTION ANNUAL PER- PUPIL COST AVERAGE TIME IN PROGRAM PER-PUPIL COST ACROSS TIME Retention$9,2001 year$9,200 Title I$2,4005 years$12,000 Special Ed.$3,7505 years$18,750 Other (eg. Small group pull-out) $2,4003 years$7,200 Reading Recovery$3, weeks$3,750

Costs are based on… Average teacher salary (found on state report cards) Adjusted teacher cost (fringe benefits) Annual spending per pupil (state report cards) Pupil-teacher ratio (state report cards) Number of Reading Recovery Full-time Equivalent (FTE) teachers (1 FTE equals 8 slots) Number of students served per FTE (number of FTE’s in the district divided by the total number of students served) Cost per student served

Formula for determining cost per pupil is as follows… Step 1: Calculate the Adjusted Teacher Salary/Cost Average teacher salary x 1.3 (allocated for fringe benefits) Step 2: Determine the Number of FTE’s (full-time equivalent teachers) for Reading Recovery Total Number of RR Slots / 8 (number of slots taught by an FTE teacher) Step 3: Determine the Number of RR Students Served per FTE Number of Students Served / Number of FTE’s Step 4: Determine Reading Recovery per Pupil Cost Adjusted Teacher Salary / Number of RR Students Served per FTE

In Horry County, for example,… (Information based on the District Report Card) Average teacher salary-$50, Step 1: Adjusted teacher cost (salary)-$65, ($50, x 1.3, with 1.3 accounting for fringe benefits) Step 2: Number of FTE’s for Reading Recovery-15 (120 / 8) Step 3: Number of Students Served per FTE-14 (210 / 15) Step 4: Cost per Reading Recovery Pupil- $4,355.61

How does this compare for Horry County? InterventionAnnual Per- Pupil Cost Average Time in Program Per-Pupil Cost Across Time Retention$10,1221 year$10,122 ($ spent per pupil) Title I3 years Special Ed.$3,1705 years$15,850 Reading Recovery$4, weeks (less than 1 year) $4, Cost Comparison for Horry County: Calculations for estimated annual per-pupil cost based on a teacher salary and benefits of $50,257 annually.

Training/Start Up Costs The following costs are incurred by the district choosing to implement the Reading Recovery program. The costs apply to each teacher trained to provide Reading Recovery instruction. Starter set of materials for implementation-$3,000 Teacher textbooks-$150 Tuition cost for graduate course required for training- $3,500 Support fee for regional training site-$3,000 Continuing contract fee-$300 a year/$900 over expected 3-years of Reading Recovery instruction TOTAL-$10,550 per teacher trained

And the total is… For a district like Horry County considering… 15 Reading Recovery teachers x $10, students served x $4, …the total cost of implementing Reading Recovery for one full year comes roughly to a grand total of… $1,072,928 That is roughly 4.57 % of the total $234,718, Horry County spent on instruction last year.

References Assad, S. & Condon, M.A. (1996). Demonstrating the cost effectiveness of reading recovery: Because it makes a difference. Network News: A Newsletter Published by the Reading Recovery Council of North America, Winter, 1-3. Gomez Bellenge, F.X. (2002). Measuring the cost of reading recovery: A practical approach. Journal of Reading Recovery, Fall, McBride, M. (2010). Computing the cost of reading recovery to your district. Retrieved from Ohio State University Reading Recovery. (2010). Requirements and costs for the training of reading recovery teachers in ohio. Retrieved from Amended_Oct_2010.pdf Amended_Oct_2010.pdf Reading Recovery Council of North America. (2010). Reading recovery: A guide for decision makers. Retrieved from