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Showing posts with category Progress Tracker Show all posts >
Implementation Fidelity: Maximizing Your Fast ForWord® or Reading Assistant™ Investment
- August 11, 2011 by Andrew Ostarello
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What is Implementation Fidelity? It is Scientific Learning’s measure of how well Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant users are following product usage protocols.
In order to maximize a student’s benefit from Fast ForWord or Reading Assistant, users need to have an intensive and persistent experience. This means using the products regularly and according to protocol. The available Fast ForWord protocols are five days a week for 30, 40, 50, or 90 minutes per day. For Reading Assistant, the protocols are 20, 30, or 40 minutes per day (depending on the grade band) for three days per week. Adherence to these protocols helps students build on their daily successes.
This leads naturally to the following question: How do you know if a student is having an intensive and persistent Fast ForWord or Reading Assistant experience?
Our answer is a concept called Implementation Fidelity. Implementation Fidelity measures how closely users of Scientific Learning products are adhering to the recommended usage protocols.
There are three components to Implementation Fidelity:
- Completion Rate
- Attendance
- Participation
Each of these components can be measured at the individual student, classroom, or district level.
Implementation Fidelity components are measured on a scale from 0 to 100%. Scores in the top 20% are considered “Good,” scores in the middle 60% are considered “Fair,” and the remaining scores in the bottom 20% are considered “Poor.”
Scientific Learning Progress Tracker is an online tool to monitor and manage Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant success.
Progress Tracker has reports to help customers track the Implementation Fidelity of their students. For example, one Implementation Fidelity report shows the overall Completion Rate, Attendance, and Participation categories for a district as a whole and for each school in that district.
We have found that a good implementation, on average, leads to 50% more reading gain per year.
Related Reading:
Forecasting ROI from Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ Products
Making Computerized Learning Work Takes WORK
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Fast ForWord, Progress Tracker, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
Unlocking the Potential of English Language Learners
- January 18, 2011 by Peter Carabi
A few weeks back, I contributed a blog entry that provided some information on how Scientific Learning programs are implemented around the world via our Value Added Representative (VAR) partners.
Today, I want to discuss one such VAR in particular, our friends from BrainMaps, based in Shanghai, run by the husband and wife team of Tiffany and Rick Lee. BrainMaps currently has a total of seven owned or affiliated centers, and it focuses on helping children generally between the ages of 6 and 12 more rapidly acquire English reading and oral fluency skills. Over the next three to four years, BrainMaps plans to have over 50 centers throughout the People’s Republic of China. Perhaps more so than in any other non-English speaking country, the benefits of English proficiency for the Chinese are very concrete in economic terms. English proficient professionals will on average earn over 50% more for the same job than their less proficient colleagues.
The Lee’s bring years of experience to the practice of English learning, having been heavily involved in the Wall Street Institute (a global network of English learning centers) prior to their association with Scientific Learning. What drew them to our programs was the strong research base, the proven results, and the sharp contrast between our methodology versus the typical “content” approach of the competition. Amongst a large collection of international, regional and local competitors in the after-school ESL market in China, BrainMaps is unique in providing a brain-fitness/cognitive skills approach to English learning.
Children at a BrainMaps center begin with three to four months of intensive Fast ForWord use, usually beginning with the Fast ForWord Language program. This is followed by 26 weeks of use of the Reading Assistant product, which includes an innovative 45 minute direct group instruction session each week with a teacher using an interactive whiteboard to provide guided reading activities around a Reading Assistant story. This session is followed by a student “recital” period, where, gathered in front of the parents who have arrived to fetch their child from the learning center, the child reads a selected Reading Assistant story. Parents can see and hear the difference from week to week. This kind or vivid progress, augmented by the Progress Tracker reports showing gains on Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) as well as improved comprehension scores, is what gives parents and the children themselves confidence in the BrainMaps method. After the 26 week period, the child reverts to another Fast ForWord program for two to three months, followed by another 26 week cycle of Reading Assistant, and so forth.
There is a rich vein of Chinese culture at play in the development of the BrainMaps instructional model. According to the Lee’s, their learning model is similar to the steps required to become a Kung-fu master. For Kung-fu mastery, there are three “must have” criteria, activating Ren-du acupuncture nodes, strengthening the inner chi-gong (internal energy), and intensively practicing the kung-fu formations. For the non-native speaker to learn English effectively, the analogous steps are to first unlock the learning potential, and then, in a sense, construct the English brain. Proper use of Fast ForWord products helps to address these two criteria. Finally, enriching the English knowledge comes about through use of Reading Assistant software, as well as via the Fast ForWord Reading programs.
BrainMaps branding includes the phrase, Powered By Scientific Learning, and we are proud of our association with this innovative use of our programs to help Chinese learners master English, putting them on a path for future success. The Lee’s welcome visitors who may be passing through Shanghai, and they can also be reached at rick.lee@brainmaps.com.cn. Or, feel free to contact me at pcarabi@scilearn.com.
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Categories: Brain Fitness, English Language Learners, Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Progress Tracker, Reading Assistant
Data Driven Decisions: A GPS Approach
- November 2, 2010 by Corey Fitzgerald
Technology offers us so many useful tools and strategies; it’s a wonder how we ever got along without them. Let’s consider the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver and its remarkable ability to pinpoint our location anywhere on earth. Accurate to within one meter, a long step for most adults, and capable of tracking your route across any terrain, they rely on a continuous feed of real-time data that is accurate and reliable. As educators, can we apply concepts like these to the classroom to make better, faster and more accurate decisions about the learning landscape?
It’s a rhetorical question, and the resounding answer is Yes. However, there is room to argue that our current system leaves us falling perpetually short as educators are forced to wait weeks or months for standardized assessment results to flow back into their hands. The resonating concern is that this periodic data limits the ability to accurately address the underlying causes of failure in-step with the ongoing instruction. Corrective action must ensue, and initiatives to support a more timely return on the data must be put into place through a process with strategies to track the day to day activities and progress monitoring for all students.
Thankfully, some of these efforts are already underway, reflected in the nation’s focus to implement state-wide reform, with a priority being placed on Assessment and Standards. However, a paradigm still exists, in that benchmarking is limited to designated grade levels and the “in between years” are somewhat neglected, leaving variability and non-standardization to chance. So how does your state stack up? Visit the USDOE Institute of Education Sciences website, National Center for Education Statistics, and query the collection of data and reports to learn more: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/
Next steps: Plotting a course to data utopia.
Using cutting edge technology underpinned with neuroscience principles on how the brain learns, Scientific Learning has pioneered software that accelerates the acquisition of language and reading skills, yielding years of gain in a matter of weeks. Like a GPS, a continuous stream of real-time data provides accurate and reliable measures of student performance daily, plotting an ideal course of learning that eliminates the lag time of data collection and analysis. Furthermore, educators can weave this information back into the classroom immediately, and focus intently on the specific areas of need. In keeping sights set high on the destination—achievement for all students—there’s a proven way to deliver success where getting lost is not an option.
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Categories: Education Trends, Progress Tracker
The Results of Fast ForWord Use at the Westfield Washington Schools in Indiana
- July 13, 2010 by Melissa Agocs
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The Westfield Washington Schools are located just north of Indianapolis, in Indiana. During the 2007 - 2008 school year, the Westfield Intermediate School implemented Fast ForWord products.
For this study, the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) were used as a pre- and post-test. The MAP assesses language arts, math, and reading skills. Ninety-eight students used the Fast ForWord products and had MAP scores that could serve as pre- and post-tests.
School personnel administered the assessment and then reported scores to Scientific Learning for analysis. On average, students used the products over a period of six months. The majority of students used three or more Fast ForWord products, starting on the Fast ForWord Literacy product, then advancing to the Literacy Advanced product, and then on to one or more Fast ForWord Reading products.
MAP scores are reported in terms of RIT scores, which indicate a student’s achievement level within a specific subject. To provide a performance comparison, participants’ gains were compared to the student’s expected gains, which were based upon RIT growth norms in the three subject areas of language arts, math, and reading.
Students showed exciting results and exceeded the expected RIT growth norms. Students who used Fast ForWord products made 7 points of RIT growth in language arts, which is 67% greater than the expected growth of 4.2 points. Gains of 10.1 points were seen in math for the Fast ForWord participants, which is 35% greater than the expected growth. Students gained 8.8 points in reading, which is nearly double the expected 4.5 points growth.
The differences between the gain scores and the expected gain scores were statistically significant in all three subject areas. These results suggest that using the Fast ForWord products strengthened the students’ foundational skills and better positioned them to benefit from the classroom curriculum.
For more information, please see the Educator Briefing and Full Report on this study as well as any of our 200+ additional reports on Fast ForWord results. If you have questions about any of our research studies, please contact us.
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Categories: Fast ForWord, Progress Tracker, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research
2010 Visionary Conference - Save the Date
- January 21, 2010 by Denise Ruvalcaba
Photo courtesy PDPhoto.orgAre you a private provider of Scientific Learning products in the U.S. or Canada? Then mark your calendars for our upcoming Visionary Conference in San Diego Thursday - Saturday, March 18 - 20, 2010. Speakers include Dr. Mike Merzenich, Dr. Paula Tallal, Dr. Bill Jenkins, Dr. Steve Miller, and Dr. Martha Burns. Be sure to let us know if you'd like to participate!
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Research, Fast ForWord, Progress Tracker, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
Welcome to the Science of Learning Blog
- January 5, 2010 by Denise Ruvalcaba
Hello and welcome to The Science of Learning blog, providing information to educators, parents, scientists, and academics on the science of brain plasticity and ways to accelerate learning for children and adults.
Visit regularly to stay up to date, or add our feed to your feed reader. And if there's a topic or issue that you'd like us to blog about, let us know by sending us an email at thescienceoflearningblog@scilearn.com.
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 Funding, Grants, and Stimulus, Education Trends, English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Progress Tracker, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research, Special Education
