Reading Recovery, a popular one-to-one tutoring program that Bush administration officials sought to shut out of a high-profile federal reading program, has gotten a rare thumbs-up from the federal What Works Clearinghouse. The positive rating comes after prominent researchers and federal reading officials tried to dissuade states and districts from paying for Reading Recovery with funds from the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program, which calls on school systems to spend their grant money on programs backed by "scientifically based research." In their objections to the tutoring program, critics raised questions about its cost and cited problems in the studies attesting to its effectiveness. In the What Works review, posted online March 20, the clearinghouse said the program had "positive" effects--the highest evidence rating possible--on students' alphabetic skills and general reading achievement. The reviewers also determined that the program had "potentially positive" effects, its next-highest rating, on reading fluency and comprehension.