I Would Like to Take This Opportunity to Invite You to Consider Taking Advantage of a Unique

March 11, 2015

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to consider taking advantage of a unique opportunity of implementing Reading Recovery in your district. Currently the Central Wisconsin Reading Recovery Consortium is applying for a Reading Recovery scholarship. . As educators, we know the importance of learning. We also know that intervention for struggling readers is critical at the first grade level. With more than 30 years of implementation in the United States and high research ratings from the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, Reading Recovery is a proven intervention used by thousands of elementary schools. Many schools that have implemented Reading Recovery have found it to be an integral component of the Response to Intervention (RtI) process. The Wisconsin Rapids School District has successfully used the one-on-one intervention program, Reading Recovery, since 1995. It is one of the interventions that has helped our district close the achievement gap. These are among the reasons educators choose Reading Recovery:  Reading Recovery is the only intervention recognized as scientifically-based to positively affect all areas in general reading achievement, alphabetics, fluency, phonemic awareness, and comprehension by the United States Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse.  Reading Recovery provides outstanding ongoing professional development as it builds successful teachers and students.  Reading Recovery has produced results in 12-18 weeks of daily 30 minute individual sessions.  Reading Recovery can be implemented in a variety of schools as evidenced by years of evaluation data on thousands of students per year. The scholarship will cover some of the costs needed to train a Reading Recovery teacher (see following page) . If interested, your school/district would fund a half-time teaching position to teach Reading Recovery in a one- on-one setting. If interested see the complete the form at the bottom of the page If you would like more information or would like to take the opportunity to observe a Reading Recovery lesson, as well as receive information about funding sources, grant opportunities, and implementation. Please contact Jackie Heinz, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader at 715-424-6721, ext. 1061 or email at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Kathi Stebbins Jackie Heinz Director of Instruction Reading Recovery Teacher Leader

Jennifer Wilhorn Reading Coordinator

Apply for $1,000 scholarship and books for new Reading Recovery Teacher is available now!

A scholarship and books are available for training new Reading Recovery teachers. The turnaround time is only two weeks and in my opinion, poorly timed as teacher contracts, staffing, and financial decisions for next year will still be mostly unsettled at this time of year.

If you know for sure that your school or district is interested in training new Reading Recovery Teachers next year for the purpose of implementing, expanding Reading Recovery implementation in new schools, or going for full implementation in existing schools, please contact me within a few days. I will need a projected number of teachers, not their names at this point.

There is a detailed application I need to complete by March 21 to apply for a $1,000 scholarship per new RRT and a set of children’s books. This comes to about a 25-30% discount on the total costs of training a new RRT depending upon your individual site fees.

For example: University tuition for new Reading Recovery Teacher $3300 (-1000 scholarship) = $2300. (30% saving) Children’s book set / materials estimate 3200 (-2000 grant) = 1200. (38% saving)

Letter(s) of commitment secured from the involved school district(s) signed by the superintendent, the site coordinator, and the teacher leader that confirms that the district will o Maintain this expansion of Reading Recovery in the upcoming four years o Commit funds for training year costs not covered by the scholarship o Pay the teacher’s salary and benefits o Guarantee the Reading Recovery teacher position for four years o Support the professional development costs associated with continuing education of the teachers o Implement Reading Recovery with integrity

You must complete the attached application and a letter of commitment on school district letterhead (see attachement). Send both documents via email to Jackie. [email protected] by March 21 at the latest so we can make the deadline.

Please let us know if you have any questions.