Warwick educator lauded for literacy efforts

Published Jan. 21, 2010 at 8:07 p.m.

WARWICK,RI -- After more than 40 years in public education, Warwick Elementary Education Director Robert Bushell can easily spot a winner when it comes to identifying programs that work well.

And for the past decade, a tutoring program called "Reading Recovery" has been at the top of his list.

The program turns struggling readers into lasting success stories, Bushell said, adding he believes in the program so much that when funding cuts jeopardized it this school year, he pushed for Warwick to step forward to serve as Rhode Island's training center for the initiative.

His efforts recently won him national recognition from Reading Recovery Council of North America which chose him as one of two educators to receive awards at its annual conference next month.

Bushell is not alone in his enthusiasm for the initiative. The state Department of Education has repeatedly praised the program and its success rate has been touted the more than one dozen school districts in Rhode Island that have used it over the years.

The problem is that the program is expensive -- both in training costs and the fact that it is labor intense. As a result, Bushell said, some school districts have had to jettison the service and two training sites that operated in the state, in conjunction with Lesley University, were closed.

It looked like Rhode Island would not be able to continue to crow is corps of teachers trained in Reading Recovery, but Bushell persuaded Warwick school officials to provide staff and space at Oakland Beach Elementary School this school year.

In addition to Warwick, eight other districts are continuing with Reading Recovery.
They are Coventry, Exeter-West Greenwich, Lincoln, North Smithfield, Scituate, South Kingstown and Woonsocket.

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