[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23435-23436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



     RECOGNIZING SHERMAN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT'S READING 
     RECOVERY PROGRAM
                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. RALPH M. HALL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 8, 2004

  Mr. HALL. Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to recognize Sherman 
Independent School District's Reading Recovery program
  In 2001, President George W. Bush signed a landmark law, the No Child 
Left Behind Act, which stresses academic achievement for all students 
and includes more accountability for student results. The Sherman 
Independent School District's Reading Recovery program meets and 
exceeds the standards and guidelines of that law. Reading Recovery is a 
highly effective, short-term intervention involving one-on-one tutoring 
for low-achieving first graders. Students receive a half-hour lesson 
each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained Reading 
Recovery teacher. As soon as students demonstrate that they can read 
within the average range of their classmates, their lessons are 
discontinued.
  Sherman's Reading Recovery program is a big success. At the Reading 
Recovery site located at Crutchfield Elementary School, students who 
completed the program passed the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge 
and Skills) test by a rate of 92 percent last year. The gains made by 
these students are truly impressive--they had higher text reading gains 
than their peers, had low levels of placement in special education 
classes, and had high levels of advancement to the next grade level.
  Reading Recovery is precisely the kind of program our schools need to 
advance the goals of the No Child Left Behind law. Research issued by 
the U.S. Department of Education finds that students tutored according 
to the Reading Recovery model read more proficiently than 75 percent of 
their untutored

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peers. This program is a valuable part of a comprehensive literacy plan 
and supplements good classroom teaching.
  On behalf of the students, teachers, and administrators of the 
Sherman Independent School District's Reading Recovery program, I want 
to take this opportunity in the House of Representatives to commend 
their successful efforts to leave no child behind.

                          ____________________