Conceptual and Methodological Flaws in the Evaluation of the ‘First’ British Reading Recovery Programme

Abstract

This paper is a response to Anna Wright's (1992) evaluation of a Reading Recovery programme in Surrey which was published in a previous issue of British Educational Research Journal. It argues that the evaluation was too narrowly conceived, poorly conducted and insufficiently tentative in its final comment, and, above all, did not produce maximally useful evidence. Some pointers to the way forward are offered.