This report summarizes the results of three studies concerning the Reading Recovery or Descubriendo la Lectura program with first-grade California students. Studies were conducted using state-wide data obtained during 1993-94 programs to determine if the program was an effective intervention for children with difficulty in learning to read. The three groups of children were English-only speakers, Spanish-only speakers, and non-English speaking children learning English using the program. Children were selected from the lowest 20 percent of first-grade classrooms in combination with teacher recommendations and results on three of six sub-tasks on Clays' Observation Survey: writing vocabulary, hearing and recording sounds in words, and text reading. Children were surveyed at the beginning and end of the program. Results indicated that 76 percent of children reached the average reading level and were discontinued from the program; average number of lessons needed was approximately 65 days. Of the three sub-tasks, greatest continued growth was found in the children's ability to read continuous text as measured by the text reading sub-task. It was concluded that the program was a useful and successful short-term intervention for these populations of first-graders at risk. (Contains 16 references.) (NAV)