The latest evaluation commissioned by the Institute of Education show Every Child a Reader to have a very positive effect on raising the attainment levels of children struggling to read at KS1. In schools funded through the programme, children receiving reading recovery lessons made on average a gain of 21 months in reading age in four to five months of teaching—well over four times the normal rate of progress. Children receiving reading recovery are routinely followed up after they have finished their programmes, to make sure that their progress is maintained. After six months children taught through Every Child a Reader had developed a normal rate of learning.
In 2008 Burroughs-Lange published a reading recovery follow up study comparing the literacy progress of young children in London schools. This study followed up the impact on children's literacy in London schools a year or more after intervention had been received. In the 2005-06 school year literacy progress was compared of the lowest achieving children in 42 schools serving disadvantaged urban areas who received reading recovery compared with those in schools which provided a range of other interventions. At the end of the 2005/06 main study—the literacy achievement of children who had received reading recovery (RR) was in line with their chronological age. The comparison group was 14 months behind with an average reading age of five years five months.
In July 2007 the literacy achievement was again compared of those same children remaining in the same 42 schools. At the end of year two the children who had received RR in year one were achieving within or above their chronological age band on all measures and were still around a year ahead of the comparison children in schools where RR was not available. The RR children had an average word reading age of seven years nine months, compared to six years nine months for the comparison children. The gender gap that was noticeable among low attaining comparison children, with boys lagging behind girls, was not evident in RR schools, where there was no gender gap. Writing achievement showed a significant difference between RR and comparison children. At the end of year two, the children who had received RR were able to write twice as many correctly spelled, words as those children who were in the comparison group.