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This year’s annual customer conference, Virtual Circle of Learning 2011, took place online last Friday with over 800 registrants. The keynote speakers—Eric Jensen, Dr. Martha Burns, and Andrew Ostarello—addressed opportunities for customers to maximize the impact of their implementations of Scientific Learning products.
Much of the content from these keynotes can be seen in our Twitter stream with the hashtag #VCOL11, as we live-tweeted the keynote sessions and linked to articles relevant to each speaker’s presentation.

The articles provide further reading on increasing student motivation and engagement, maximizing the results of using Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant products, and more:
Customers who missed a keynote or breakout session can watch it on Customer Connect (customer login required). Feel free to share the link with others at your school who were not able to attend.
Also, be sure to complete your survey to let us know what you enjoyed and what we can improve for next year. And, if you have an iPad, be sure to include your iTunes email address so we can give you our new iPad app, Eddy’s Number Party!
And now, off to start planning for Virtual Circle of Learning 2012!
Related Reading:
Building Fluent Readers: How Oral Reading Practice Helps Reading Comprehension
How Learning to Read Improves Brain Function
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Education Trends, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant
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Marion County Public Schools in Ocala, FL, wanted to evaluate the effects of the Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ products on the academic achievement of their students. Students in Florida are assessed with the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, abbreviated as the FCAT. The students in this study were initially at FCAT Level 1 or 2, where Level 3 means performing on grade level and Level 5 means the student is successful with the most challenging grade-level content. These study participants attended middle and high schools in the Marion County Public Schools and most of them were eligible for Exceptional Student Education services.
Each spring, all Marion County students in Grades 3-10 take the FCAT. This is a criterion-referenced test. The Reading portion of the FCAT is designed to assess student achievement of the high-order cognitive skills represented in the Sunshine State Standards.
One way for students at FCAT Levels 1 and 2 to meet their Annual Learning Gains (ALG), a component in determining a school’s grade, is for them to improve their scores by more than a state-mandated level that varies depending on grade level. Across the students in this study, in order to meet Annual Learning Gains, the students had to improve at least 115 points.
After using Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant products, 60% of the participants made ALG with the actual improvement of 173 points, on average, exceeding the expected gain of 115 points by a statistically significant amount.
Related Reading:
Longitudinal Study Shows Significant Fast ForWord® Gains Endure Over Time
Fast ForWord® Language Series Has Greatest Impact of Any Intervention Listed by NCRTI
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Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
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This post is the fourth in a series aimed at sharing the success stories, both personal and professional, that Scientific Learning employees witness every day.
Mary’s Story:
I was hired at Scientific Learning in 2007 to educate people about the products as an Account Manager in the Midwest. At the same time that I got the phone call to find out if I had interest in talking to Scientific Learning, our ninth grade son announced to us that he was not going to high school and he was going to drop out. It took my breath away. Both his father and I have been educators for many years and we both hold advanced degrees.
I said, “Todd, you have to go to high school,” and he said, “But I don’t want to go.” I said, “But you have to,” and he asked, “Well, what would happen if I didn’t go?” I said, “It’s the law, Todd.” Then he said, “I can’t read. I can’t keep up with it. You guys have done everything for me that is possible but I can’t read. I can’t read at grade level.”
I called my son’s teacher (we convinced him to go to school) and I said, “Here’s the carrot. My son doesn’t have to do any homework until he finishes this product. This is his homework at night.” And every night he came home and did Fast ForWord.
And what he did is committed to doing 90 minutes a day and he was done is less than 4 weeks, and he did the post test and when I looked up the score my son had gone from seventh grade, one month reading level to tenth grade, two months reading level. He was a year above grade level and for the very first time in his life he said, “I love to read.”
All I can say is thank you to all the scientists that did all the work to bring this product to not only my son but to the parents and kids out there in America who need it so desperately.
Related Reading:
Language Skills Increase 1.8 Years After 30 Days Using Fast ForWord
Implementation Fidelity: Maximizing Your Fast ForWord® or Reading Assistant™ Investment
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Categories: Brain Fitness, Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning
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This post is the second in a series aimed at sharing the success stories, both personal and professional, that Scientific Learning employees witness every day.
Leigh Ann’s Story:
“Hi, my name is Leigh Ann. I’m a BrainPro Representative with Scientific Learning and I have a few stories I would like to tell today about some outcomes that have really touched my heart.
The first story I want to tell is about Henry. He’s eleven. He lives in Michigan and his mom was really very excited to tell me this story. At eleven, he couldn’t spend more than fifteen to twenty minutes reading, and a month after he started our software he spent three hours in the hammock in his backyard reading a book from cover to cover. And when he was finished he ran in the house and he goes, ‘That was fun!’ And his mom was just so thrilled when she told me that story.
There was a seventeen-year-old boy in Canada, and the Internet where they lived was not strong enough to deliver our software into the home. So he had to drive forty minutes one way to his dad’s office. So he drove an hour and twenty minutes each day. That boy’s life completely changed. His parents said he’s a different boy. He saw himself catching up to the smarter kids in class. It completely, totally changed his life.
And those are the stories, those are the things that help me get out of bed every morning and get to work with a big smile on my face and know that I’m make a big difference in children’s lives.”
Related Reading:
Jolene’s Story: “I Saw Tremendous Change”
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Categories: Family Focus, Reading & Learning

Ms. Egli is Executive Director at Bridges Academy in Winter Spring, FL.
Students who maintain average grades, but appear to be expending an excessive amount of time and effort to maintain those grades may have underlying learning deficits. As educators, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that students who require more time for completing assignments seem to show a disparity between what they have learned in class and how they perform on high stakes assessments. They may in fact be struggling with various learning challenges such as weakness in memory function, inability to process large volumes of information, vocabulary deficits and poor abilities in written expression.
Working with University of Central Florida Communications Disorders doctoral candidate Janet Proly, I had the opportunity to collaborate on a single-subject designed study of three promising high school students who appeared to be successful in their classes but also had significant hidden learning deficits.
The three students, twin 10th-grade boys in a general education program and a 12th-grade student who attended a magnet health and science academy, expressed concern over their struggle to keep up with their respective workloads of studying, reading and comprehending assignments, and their performance on tests like the FCAT. All reported that it took them three times the amount of actual time to complete their homework, citing that they had to re-read assignments multiple times in order to master the information. This inefficient learning caused all three boys to receive lower than expected scores on the state assessment, possibly compromising their ability to obtain a standard high school diploma. All three students approached me to inquire about participating in a summer reading program hosted by Bridges Academy, and thus became candidates for our collaborative study on the impact of improving reading fluency using computer technology for intervention.
Proly and I structured a single subject design study to determine the impact of using computer technology formulated to improve processing and working memory, as well as oral reading fluency. We modeled our study after the 2010 study published by Wexler, Vaughn, Roberts, and Denton.[i] The school offered a summer program to the three students. Using the Fast ForWord Literacy and Reading Assistant products for the six-week planned intervention would address recommendations for an alternative fluency intervention with a higher degree of intensity, and the inclusion of interventions that focus on processing.
After an initial assessment, the students participated in the intervention. We conducted a post-intervention assessment, and then assessed the students once again six months after the intervention. All three students demonstrated significant improvement in their reading fluency, and gains of more than two years on average in word attack and comprehension skills. The three students sustained these gains even though all three were no longer receiving any support or intervention.
This study, along with the focus on adolescent literacy, has increased interest in addressing the needs of middle and high school students who report these kinds of challenges in three specific programs: the UCF Communications Disorders Clinic; the UCF Communications Disorders Doctoral Program; and the Bridges Academy private school. As our results indicate, these short term computer interventions, through focusing on working memory, reading fluency and processing speed, have significant potential to help capable students succeed both in classes and on annual assessments.
In 2008 alone, over 20,000 high school students in the state of Florida dropped out of the public high school program. Did they leave because it was simply too hard to keep up? Could we have kept them in school if we had been able to provide a short term intervention that could not only have engaged them, but improved their learning and achievement? My collaborators and I all believe the answer to both of these questions is, absolutely, yes.
So what comes next? Our plan is to work together on an expanded study for the 2011-12 academic year that will take place at the private school and the UCF Communications Disorders Clinic. In reaching more participants, our plan – and our hope – is to continue to demonstrate program effectiveness and change the lives of more students for the better.
[i] Wexler, J., Vaughn, S., Roberts, G. & Denton, C.A. (2010), The efficacy of repeated reading and wide reading practice for high school students with severe reading disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 25(1), 2-10.
Related Reading:
Inspiring Fluency: One School’s Journey to Improve Reading Skills
One Half Year Increase in One Month with Reading Assistant
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Special Education
Reading is an active and complex task that requires the brain to use a multitude of cognitive skills and mental processes to develop meaning and comprehension from written text. Being able to read high-level text independently and fluently is essential for high achievement, not only in academia but also in the workplace and through numerous life tasks. However there is a serious gap between many high school seniors’ reading ability and the reading requirements they face after graduation.
Consider the chart below. The Lexile Measure for reading level of high school literature and textbooks falls short of the level typical of college, military and workplace material. And when you take into consideration the reading level of most standardized assessments for high school students, a Lexile range of 1000-1100, the gap becomes even more evident. Simply put, students are leaving high school with limited exposure to higher-level text and contact with reading standards and assessments that don’t adequately align to meet the real world conditions they’ll be confronted with.

Research conducted by ACT’s College Readiness Benchmark for Reading indicates that just over half of our nation’s students who are on a college preparatory track are able to meet the demands and rigor of postsecondary and workplace requirements. And if that isn’t daunting enough, data from the most recent reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that only 38% of high school seniors tested at or above proficiency for 12th grade standards. This bodes ill for the ability of Americans to meet the demands and challenges of a highly competitive global marketplace and begs the question, “Why aren’t our schools’ reading standards higher?”
Studies show that aligning high school standards to college and workplace expectations is a critical step toward giving students a solid foundation in the academic, social and workplace skills needed for success in a postsecondary education or career. The American Diploma Project has found that there is a common core of knowledge and skills, particularly in English and math, that students must master to be prepared for both postsecondary education and well-paying jobs. The research shows that there is a strong correlation between scores in high school math and English and wages earned once in the workplace. Students who are taking below-average or functional/basic classes increase their likelihood of being employed in a low-paid or low-skill job, compared to students in the top quartile who earn significantly more in the decade following high school than their ‘average’ or low performing peers.
As we seek to curtail the disparity between what’s taught in K-12 classrooms and what’s expected in the real world, it’s important that we coordinate with our local and national education and business leaders, help them to provide a cohesive approach to improve the rigors of academic coursework, promote relevant and innovative learning opportunities for all students, and share information and resources that advance the coordination across the K-12 and postsecondary sectors of our society. And by all means if you can read this, thank a teacher!
References:
Malbert Smith III, Ph.D. Bridging the Readiness Gap: Demystifying Required Reading Levels for Postsecondary Pursuits. Lexile.com.
Related Reading:
The Essential Nature of Developing Oral Reading Fluency
Adolescence: What’s the Brain Got to Do with It?
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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning
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Return on Investment, or “ROI” is a straightforward concept. With educational interventions, we invest something (typically time, money, or energy) and receive some benefit.
The primary benefit of investing time, money, and energy in Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ products is increased student achievement. This benefit has always been a focus for Scientific Learning. However, in our discussions with customers, we realized that many district stakeholders had a parallel benefit that they are concerned with: the financial impact on their district as a whole. We decided to see if we could address and quantify this parallel (and perhaps complementary) view of ROI.
We identified four areas where data suggest that implementation of Scientific Learning products can impact a district’s financial costs:
Here’s an example of how we tried to quantify one of these benefits. A district in Swartz Creek, Michigan observed a 30% drop year-over-year in special education referrals after implementing Fast ForWord products with their students. To be safe, we chose a very statistically conservative estimate for the reduction a new customer might expect to see in their special education referral rates: 21.2%. Technically, we got this by looking at the lower bound of a 95% confidence interval for the effect based on the Swartz Creek data.
These estimates led to the creation of Scientific Learning’s Return on Investment Tool. The tool estimates the ROI—that is, the true financial cost—of using Scientific Learning products over a three year horizon. This includes the initial software purchase and three years of product support. Note that we often see ROIs greater than 100% (i.e. a net financial benefit) for medium to large implementations with lots of students.
If we take a look at a three-year ROI for a large implementation, in year one the costs exceed the financial benefits, but in subsequent years the products more than pay for themselves. Actual estimates will depend greatly on the individual district and the scope of the implementation.
To get an ROI estimate for your school or district, contact us.
Related Reading:
Over 45% Relative Improvement in Students Reaching Proficiency
79% of ELL Students Increase Proficiency by One or More Levels
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Education Trends, English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research, Special Education

As the webinar coordinator and moderator here at Scientific Learning, I’ve had the privilege of hearing many wonderful speakers on a variety of compelling topics. Of all of the webinars I’ve presided over, one of my favorites was the one presented by Eric Jensen in September, 2010, titled “7 Amazing Discoveries from Brain Research.” For that webinar, our most highly-attended ever, Eric took complex concepts about the brain and made them more “user friendly” and interesting. At the end of the session, I was excited to go learn and study more on my own about the brain and how it functions!
Of the seven discoveries presented in this webinar, the one that I found to be most intriguing was the concept that our emotions can influence our minds and bodies. For years, people have discussed the connection between emotions and the body but now there is research being done that proves that there is indeed a link. For example, one study cited in this webinar indicates that there are approximately 6 – 8 emotions that are innate and the rest are taught by parents, teachers, friends, technology, etc. If children aren’t given the opportunity to learn about a wide range of emotions, this gives them not only less of an ability to handle conflicts and issues that might come up for them but could hinder their learning process.
To learn more about brain research discoveries that can help you in the classroom and beyond, be sure to check out the recorded webinar.
To learn more about Eric Jensen, visit the Jensen Learning website.
Related Reading:
Brain Plasticity: Using Advances in Technology for Better Living
You Unplugged: Finding Balance with Extended Reading, Writing, and Thinking Time
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Research, Reading & Learning
The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort to provide a nationally consistent framework that will ready American students for success in college and in the global workforce. To date, 44 states have adopted the common core standards approach and numerous public and private business partners, including Scientific Learning, have endorsed this vision of consistence and clarity in our nation’s education system.
What’s important to recognize is that the Common Core State Standards Initiative is NOT a directive from the federal government. Each state voluntarily adopts the standards based on timelines and context within their state; this is key. The role of the federal government will be to support states as they begin to implement this approach by providing flexibility in the use of existing federal funds, accountability metrics and revise or align existing federal education laws with the lessons learned from past initiatives. The outcome will be a more collaborative state- and federal-level relationship that will focus on employing the best practices and highest evidence-based outcomes from educational research across the country.
The goal of the Common Core is to provide educators with an exocentric understanding of what students are expected to learn, allowing them to identify the most effective strategies and modes of instruction that will help them excel in serving their students’ needs. Leading the effort are the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center). Comprised of state leaders in conjunction with parents, teachers, school administrators, business partners and experts from across the country, they have developed a shared set of goals and expectations that will help our students succeed.
To ensure this process is collaborative, inclusive and rigorous, several working groups and committees have been formed to develop, write and validate the approach to implementing these common standards across the country. By aligning our country’s standards with other high achieving educational models and setting realistic goals, we will be better positioned to meet the real world expectations and prepare our nation’s students for college and career-oriented success beyond the K-12 classroom.
The importance of the Common Core State Standards Initiative continues to be viewed from many angles, although there are areas of uncertainty that have given rise to opposition. Of course, standards alone cannot improve the quality of our nation’s education system, but they do give educators a clearer vision for setting goals and expectations for their students. The standards will not prevent different levels of achievement among students, but they will help teachers provide more consistent exposure to curriculum and meaningful instruction through opportunity-based learning and classroom experiences.
Students will no doubt benefit as our country continues to do the right things in calibrating the education system, promoting more frequent, intense and adaptive instruction to improve the way students learn and strengthen our rank among the top-performing nations in the world.
Related Reading:
How Scientific Learning Products Correlate with Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards Initiative: Myths vs. Facts
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Categories: Education Funding, Grants, and Stimulus, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

We educators talk a lot about student engagement. We understand that engagement is the magic key that drives the student and creates the moment when they become self-motivated. Engagement must be at the core of our goals as educators, for an engaged student finds wonder in their learning, and they not only find meaning in their studies, but they grow personally, for a lifetime, as a result of that learning.
But what do we really mean when we talk about the engaged student? What does it look like in the brain when a student is truly inspired? In the 2008 article, Engaging Students with Brain-Based Learning, the authors cite research from LeDoux, Eden and Schacter whose studies found connections between learning and 1) connections with emotions and memories, 2) relationships to real-life experiences, and 3) “activation of both the auditory and visual areas of the brain to create meaning.”[i]In short, they are talking about what has become known as “brain-based learning,” which consists of teaching strategies that encourage the brain to make associations and “create synaptic connections and anchor learning through contextual experience.”[ii]
In many ways, the research has confirmed what humanity’s greatest thinkers discovered long ago. How many years has it been since you slowed down and went back to meditate for a moment on some of the great axioms about learning and education? They hold wonderful hints and secrets that not only still apply, but have been proven by even the most modern research.
What? Who has time to instill passion, emotion and caring? Many teachers are doing this every day, but we need more! Quite often, educators are pressed more to ensure that students are able to do their multiplication tables, find the capital of North Carolina on a map of the United States and recite the chemical formula for water.
And yet, our greatest challenge remains inextricably linked to our greatest hope for the future. We must do all we can to light those fires of inspiration and help our students find those deep personal connections to their learning. If we can do that, not only will they learn more successfully, but it will be our students who grab the reins, take charge of their learning, and maybe—just maybe—find their way toward Twain’s angelship.
[i] Kaufman, E. Robinson, S. Bellah, K. Akers, C. Haase-Wittler, P. Martindale, L. Engaging Students with Brain-Based Learning. ACTE Online. September 2008.
[ii]Ibid.
For further reading:
Pychyl , Timothy A. Don't Delay: Understanding procrastination and how to achieve our goals. Psychology Today Blogs. May 10, 2008.
Haenke, Rod. Using Brain Research to Engage Students. Engage Learner. October 3, 2008.
Related Reading:
Using the Human Element to Make Science Fun and Approachable
Teaching Creativity in the Classroom
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning