Council Bluffs Community School District
Council Bluffs, Iowa

The Council Bluffs Community School District began serving children in Reading Recovery in 1994. Nine teachers were trained by a neighboring training site over the next 2 years. In 1996, Council Bluffs became an official training site with its own teacher leader. By 1998-99, all Council Bluffs elementary schools were serving children in Reading Recovery. A second teacher leader was trained in 1999-2000. The following year, the district was nearing full implementation and has continued to maintain a high level of coverage.

Over the course of 14 years, the site has trained 98 Reading Recovery teachers serving 4,125 students across southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska. We are currently training 10 Reading Recovery teachers and a third teacher leader is being trained at the University of Northern Iowa’s Reading Recovery Center. As part of the district’s comprehensive literacy plan, we have begun training in Linda Dorn’s Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy, with Reading Recovery being the ‘heartbeat’ of the model.

We credit our ability to maintain a high level of implementation with a discontinuation rate that exceeds the national average to our school board, administration, parents, and dedicated teachers who focus on our mission as being ‘MISSION: POSSIBLE.’

Kevin attempts to read his new book while
Reading Recovery teacher Marla Hunt
supports him.

Julie reads a familiar book while Reading Recovery
teacher Jennifer Plummer listens and records
evidence of Julie's developing control of phrasing
in fluent reading.

Nino watches as Reading Recovery teacher Lindsey
Hanneman demonstrates how to form the letter "S".