Fifth grade teacher Chris Zimmerman shows the board how the technology works in the newly renovated classroom with the audio enhancement, the special lighting and new desks at the Ludlow board of education meeting Thursday night.

A popular reading program used to help young students struggling to read is facing national criticism, and on Tuesday, Kentucky legislators talked about it with reading experts in Kentucky.

“It’s my estimate that we spend at least $30 million of taxpayer dollars a year for Reading Recovery, teacher salaries, and training,” said Rep. Tina Bojanowski (D-Louisville), an education committee member who held a press conference after the Interim Joint Committee on Education Tuesday. 

The Reading Recovery program, which provides individual tutoring for first graders, is controversial because it is based on a reading theory that scientists have now found to be ineffective, according to a 2019 article in APM Reports. Opponents of the strategy have argued that it uses a method that teaches struggling readers to get by, teaching students to read in a manner used by poor readers instead of helping them learn to read. 

A federal study released in May shows the program causes students to have lower scores on reading tests in third and fourth grade as compared to students who did not participate in the program. 

“We need to be very intentional to ensure that our taxpayer dollars are spent in the best way to ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn to read,” Bojanowski said.

Dr. George Hruby, executive director of Collaborative Center for Literacy Development, and Dr. Melinda Harmon, director of Reading Recovery at the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development, testified to the Interim Committee.

“The goal of Reading Recovery is to reduce the number of first-grade students who have extreme difficulty learning to read and write and to reduce the long-term costs,” Harmon said.

In Kentucky, all Reading Recovery professionals receive a full year of graduate-level education, followed by ongoing professional development throughout their years during recovery, according to Harmon. 

“Our teachers select the four first grade children who score the lowest on a diagnostic assessment of early literacy achievement,” Harmon said.

The students are then given a 30-minute one-on-one session each day until the children reach an average reading level. Teachers spend about 30-50 hours per month on this instruction, which breaks down to two to three hours a day.

Harmon and Hruby presented research from the What Works Clearinghouse that they say shows the program works.

“Reading Recovery achieved strong results, receiving positive or potentially positive ratings across all four outcomes — alphabetics (phonics and phonemic awareness), fluency, comprehension, and reading achievement,” the WWC research says. “Among programs reviewed, Reading Recovery received the highest improvement index in reading achievement and fluency. “

The program is in 72 of Kentucky’s 120 counties, including Campbell and Pendleton in Northern Kentucky. 

Mark Payne is the government and politics reporter for LINK nky. Email him at mpayne@linknky.com. Twitter.