In Reading Recovery, program-trained teachers provide one-to-one tutoring in 30-minute daily sessions to the lowest 10 to 20% of a first-grade class who have the prerequisite skills for Reading Recovery. Reading Recovery advocates claim that the program brings the lowest performing children up to the average level of their local class by the end…

Evaluations of IBM's Writing to Read program for kindergartners and first graders are reviewed. The 21 kindergarten studies evidenced a median effect size of 0.23; however, in many cases this effect may be a result of comparisons with nonacademic programs. Across 13 first grade studies, the median effect size was 0.00. (TJH)

The decision by the National Institute of Education panel on the effects of school desegregation to select (for meta-analysis) a small group of preferred studies based upon criteria chosen in advance of examining the studies was, in principle, a mistake. One usually cannot know until the data have been examined which of several competing…