“Ben was eating an apple at school.” Tully Matusko, a first grader at Pond Cove Elementary School, reads from a thin book with his finger held to the page, following the words as he reads them.

Tully is in his 10th week of the Reading Recovery program, a short-term early intervention literacy program offered in the first grade that has shown success in helping the lowest-performing first-graders reach the average reading and writing levels of their classmates.

The program has been offered at Pond Cove for 14 years, but the program may have to change, because the state has stopped directly funding the program’s central network of teacher trainers, based at the University of Maine.

According to the university, in 2003-2004 there were 12 teacher-training sites in Maine serving 206 schools in 96 school districts and 13 teacher leaders providing initial or ongoing training to 297 teachers who served almost 2,400 students.

There are three Reading Recovery teachers at Pond Cove – Suzanne Hamilton, Deborah Jordan Pearson and Becky Swift. All three attended a year-long program to become certified Reading Recovery teachers, and must attend six to seven teacher training sessions each year at one of the regional sites, as well as a conference, to remain certified.

Interim Superintendent Bob Lyman said the three teachers are funded partially by the local budget and partially by Title I money, federal funds for kids who need additional help in reading and math.

Since the state stopped directly funding the program the money for this centralized network is now expected to come from targeted funds for K-2 education within the state’s new education funding formula, known as Essential Programs and Services. For the network to stay in place each district that uses the Reading Recovery program in first grade would need to chip in about $3,000 per Reading Recovery teacher to fund it, according to Lyman.

Lyman said using the funds from EPS were complicated, because the additional funds that were theoretically coming to Cape had been promised back to the taxpayers in the form of property tax relief. Lyman said Cape would use federal local entitlement funds to support the Reading Recovery teachers at Pond Cove.

Cape Elizabeth has a “very supportive administration and School Board, and the parent involvement and support is outstanding … we have the optimum situation here,” Hamilton said about the program.

Hamilton, Swift and Pearson are hopeful that money will be found to continue the Reading Recovery statewide network. If the money does not come from the individual districts to fund the effort, Pond Cove and the other schools could not use the name “Reading Recovery.” They could, however, continue with what they do at Pond Cove.

“Ben ran home after school and … and …” Tully stumbles over a word here or there, but Hamilton sits beside Tully and helps him along when he gets stuck.

“Go back and try to sound it out,” she said. “Ben ran home after school and … showed Mom,” he finished.

She keeps notes as Tully progresses through the book in a sort of shorthand – marking where he hesitates, where he pronounces something wrong, where he self-corrects himself. All these will help her later tailor specific lessons for Tully.

Tully meets with Hamilton every day for a half-hour one-on-one lesson: First Tully reads a familiar book to practice reading strategies in a familiar text, a book he read once the day before. Then they practice on the board with colorful magnetic letters, he writes, constructs sentences and attempts a new book every day.

“There’s been a huge amount of growth for Tully in a short time,” said Hamilton.

Nationally, the Reading Recovery Council of North America estimates that about 80 percent of students who completed 12 to 20 weeks of one-on-one lessions reached the average achievement levels of their peers.

Hamilton received a note from Tully’s father after two weeks of lessons with Tully. He said there had been a 100 percent positive change in Tully’s attitude toward reading, Hamilton said.

When it is time for some writing Tully takes an orange marker and attempts to continue a story he began the day before. He wants to write, “they have Velcro and they are cute.” He makes a “t” and then an “h,” then he hesitates for a second and scribbles in the air above the page with the tip of his marker before quickly finishing the word – “thae.”

“Close,” said Hamilton, “it does sound like there’s an ‘a’ in there.” She corrects him and he continues. He struggles a bit with “Velcro” and the word “cute.” He originally spells it “cuot.”

Hamilton helps him sound it out, “cu … t …”

“‘U’ is saying its own name, Tully. Why? What’s on the end?” Hamilton asked. “E,” Tully said triumphantly.

Another result of early intervention in reading and writing is it improves a student’s self-esteem. Even at a young age a student can have low self-esteem if they see themselves trailing behind their classmates in reading or writing ability. By bringing the students up to the range of their peers the Reading Recovery program can affect more than just their performance in reading and writing.

After 20 years of collecting data in this country the RRCNA claims that without early intervention 8 of 10 lowest-performing first graders would remain as underachievers in fourth grade.

Tully Matusko, a first grader at Pond Cove, reads a book during his Reading Recovery lesson with Suzanne Hamilton.

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