How a Low Performing School Achieved Double-Digit Gains on the California Standards Tests (CSTs)

• November 20, 2012 by Scott Sterling

On November 5^th, Dr. Martha Burns and Mr. Charles Wilson, principal of the Korematsu Discovery Academy in the Oakland Unified School District, presented a live webinar that explained the research behind the Fast ForWord program and how it took Korematsu from NCLB Program Improvement (PI) status to achieving double-digit learning gains -- and emerging from PI status in only two school years!

Dr. Burns focused on the neurophysiology of learning, specifically the importance of several key left hemisphere pathways. Dr. Burns noted that these pathways appear to be originally founded in object naming networks but gradually expand to symbolic representation systems. She described how information is moved from perceptual/comprehension regions in the rear of the brain to the anterior regions of the frontal lobe, where the learner can utilize the information in useful ways.

This process is particularly important in reading. Reading represents one form of symbolic processing in which the visual symbol corresponds initially to speech sounds and ultimately to words and sentences. Fast ForWord is particularly designed to activate and strengthen speech perception, comprehension and production regions and those key pathways that enable processing for struggling learners by:

• Targeting key neurological centers for language, perceptual processing and sequencing
• Enhancing processing speed and accuracy through repetition and practice of brain fitness exercises
• Building executive functions (life skills) through exercises that increase students’ ability to control their attention and retain information (working memory)

The best testament to Fast ForWord’s capabilities is real-world success, which is exactly what Mr. Wilson provided in his section of the webinar. Korematsu is a heavily disadvantaged school with a 95% free lunch rate and a high percentage of ELL students. Korematsu found itself in NCLB Program Intervention status due to not meeting AYP requirements, at which point Wilson and his staff adopted Fast ForWord. In the subsequent school year, the Academy experienced double-digit gains on the CSTs and was named the Alameda County English Learner School of the Year.

Those of us who have worked in a low-performing school understand the immense challenge it is to improve student achievement, especially in the midst of record budget cuts.  A lot can be learned from Mr. Wilson, a man who has achieved such great success for students in one of the most challenging educational environments.  With a mix of leadership, determination, innovation, and inspiration, Mr. Wilson shows us that anything is possible. 

 

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Categories: Brain Research, Education Trends, English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic assistance, academic problems, academic proficiency, academic success, accelerate learning, achievement gap, ayp, below grade level, brain training, improving reading skills, increased test scores, learning to read, literacy, reading intervention, school leader effectiveness, student growth, student reading growth, student reading improvement, success stories, technology in education, webinar

Fast ForWord Featured on ABC 7 News

• June 17, 2011 by Norene Wiesen

For those of you who missed the ABC 7 News spot last night, here's another chance to hear the success story of students at Korematsu Discovery Academy in Oakland, CA, who have seen reading test gains of 1.5 years, on average, since beginning the Fast ForWord program earlier this year. 

"You don't normally see that kind of gains," said the school's principal, Charles Wilson. "And it's not the kids fault, it's the system's fault for not providing the interventions that they need."

Wilson made the program available to his students for the first time this year with a $30,000 tech grant he received from the district.  He is now working on getting another grant to extend the program to all students at his school next year.

Scientific Learning's own Dr. Bill Jenkins is featured as well, discussing the science behind the program.

For parents interested in home use, learn about our BrainPro service which provides Fast ForWord software and an online tutor.

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, brain training, child reading development, cognitive skills, improving reading skills, increased test scores, student reading growth, technology in education, reading test gains

68% of Students Improve MEPA Proficiency Significantly after Fast ForWord®

• May 12, 2011 by Andrew Ostarello

This study looked at 118 English Language Learner students who used Fast ForWord® products in the 2009-2010 school year from Everett Public Schools in Everett, MA.  A small minority of the students also used the Fast ForWord products in the previous 2008-2009 school year.

These students were tested in both 2009 and 2010 with the Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment, or the “MEPA” for short.  The impact of Fast ForWord products was dramatic and positive.  Following Fast ForWord participation, students averaged about 15 and a half scaled score points of improvement between 2009 and 2010.  

In addition, no student scored at proficiency level 1 (the lowest proficiency level) after using Fast ForWord products.  On the other end of the spectrum, the number of students in the top two proficiency levels (levels 4 and 5) more than doubled, from 33 to 74 students. 

Finally, 68% of participants improved one or more proficiency levels; 26% maintained the same proficiency level they had in 2009; while only 6% dropped a level.  This shift is statistically significant.

Related Reading:

Unlocking the Potential of English Language Learners

Scientific Learning Around the World

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Categories: English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: academic success, improving reading skills, increased test scores, language learning, literacy, reading test gains, student reading growth, technology in education

Inspiring Students to Dream, Learn and Grow

• May 10, 2011 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

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.

• “Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” (Malcolm Forbes, 1919-1990) To engage our students, we need to teach them not only to develop answers, but also learn to ask questions. We need to engage their judgment, creativity and reason, not just their memories.
• “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” (William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939) Clearly for students to be inspired to not just succeed but also to exceed, we educators must engage their passions and, as stated above, their emotions. Our challenge is to seek out those things that are of direct personal interest to our students, and then show them how to find the connections to these passions and what we’re focusing on in the classroom.
• “There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to angelship.” (Mark Twain, 1835-1910) These words are beautiful at so many levels, but at the purely practical one, Twain reminds us of something that we need to bring to our students attention every day. We can help them develop an awareness that they are learning so much more than facts and processes; they are learning the skills that will allow them to contribute to solving the problems of humanity. In short, we need to show them how they are developing the power to change the world.

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

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: brain training, elementary school learning, emotions in learning, high school learning, how children learn, learning environment, memory, middle school learning, motivating students, student reading growth, teacher impact

Let's Get Engaged!

• April 21, 2011 by Terri Zezula

The pressure on educators in today’s environment is nothing short of brutal. Achieving a balance between individualizing instruction and ensuring that all students are performing against standards requires comprehensive expertise, the ability to adapt to immediate needs of students and classrooms, and saintly patience.

This balancing act is especially challenging for educators in ESL classrooms. They not only have to deal with the same variations in skills, knowledge and experience that every classroom teacher must face; they must also engage students of varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds, making for an especially challenging mix of communications and social skills.

So, what kinds of reading activities can we use to teach all of these different students and engage them for maximum effectiveness? There is certainly no shortage of great techniques and ideas out there that we can mine. We need only to look to resources like The Internet TESL Journal, Dave’s ESL Café, ManyThings.org, and the US State Department’s English Teaching Forum for great techniques as well as background research.

Here are just a few seed questions to help you think about designing engaging ESL reading activities:

What’s your sign? The world we live in is awash with language in the form of signs and advertisements. Looking at signage out in the world around us not only offers wonderful, relevant reading material, it gives students short, quick messages to read and interpret. ManyThings.org offers an archive of over 700 photographs of signs to pull from at http://www.manythings.org/signs/.

What’s your story? Reading stories along with audio recordings is an excellent way to solidify reading and comprehension skills. We can maximize student engagement by choosing stories that are directly relevant to the cultural backgrounds of our students.  Not only will this engage individual students, but it will provide fodder for cross-cultural conversation and understanding. Further, in highlighting individual students’ cultures, it allows each to shine and find pride in their background. For stories, check out Folk Tales from Around the World and the World of Tales.

What’s cool? Maybe the most effective way to engage students in reading is to select activities that are of genuine interest to them as individuals. What are the things that they think are, well, cool? Where are their passions? Designing activities that plug into those interests has incredible potential for maximum effectiveness. Websites like How Stuff Works offer endless resources for allowing students to read and learn about the topics that they find most interesting. And when they’re genuinely interested, they are most likely to want to read more, discuss more and write more.

Finding the “sweet spot” for designing ESL reading activities requires a great arsenal of tactics, tools and techniques. But if we can create and execute activities that teach the essential skills through harnessing each student’s passions and interests, we are that much more likely to help them learn successfully.

Related Reading:

Indispensible Automaticity: How Reading Frees the Mind to Learn

How Learning to Read Improves Brain Function

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Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!

Categories: English Language Learners, Reading & Learning

Tags: creativity, improving reading skills, learning to read, literacy, motivating students, reading comprehension, student reading growth, teacher impact, writing

Students Exceed State Average on TAKS after Fast ForWord, Maintain Gains

• April 20, 2011 by Melissa Agocs

Since the 2004-2005 school year, the Dallas Independent School District has used the Fast ForWord products in many of their high schools. This multi-year study followed more than 500 high school students from 20 schools over the years of their Fast ForWord participation.   This study shows impressive longitudinal results on the TAKS which is The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills which is administered annually throughout Texas and is closely aligned with the state curricular standards.   A longitudinal study is a type of study that follows the same subjects over time.

Students started with the Fast ForWord Middle & High School product, now known as the Fast ForWord Literacy product. Many went on to use the Fast ForWord Language to Reading and Fast ForWord to Reading products. On average, students spent 60 days using the products during a 5 ½ month period.

 The scores of Fast ForWord participants moved in step with the state average until the students started to use Fast ForWord products.  During the year of Fast ForWord product use, the participants experienced accelerated learning that separated their performance from that of their peers.  Even up to two years after they finished using the products, the Fast ForWord participants maintained their improvements. The TAKS gains made during the study were statistically larger for the Dallas Fast ForWord participants than the gains made by their statewide peers.

Related Reading:

Why Time Matters in Learning

After Just 24 Days, Summer School Students Significantly Improve Reading Scores

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: accelerate learning, achievement gap, assessments, high school learning, increased test scores, reading test gains, student reading growth, TAKS, technology in education, Texas, video

“I Thought We Were Losing Him”: Why We Become Teachers

• April 12, 2011 by Carrie Gajowski

A few months ago, we heard from Cory Armes, an Education Consultant at Scientific Learning, and she told her story about her experience with the Scientific Learning products and how that led her to become part of the Scientific Learning team.  Today we hear from Karen Forester, a Senior Implementation Manager in the South, about the impact of the Fast ForWord products on the life on one 13-year-old from Florida:

“Several years ago, while visiting a Fast ForWord lab at a middle school in Florida, I was working with the reading coach and teacher on data interpretation methods and real time results from the work their students had been doing in the exercises.  We were looking specifically at reading level gains and national percentile scores when I noticed one student had a four year, two month gain in only 60 days.  I pointed this out and the reading coach audibly gasped, then whispered, 'Can we look closer at his scores?' 

As we reviewed the detail report, we saw the remarkable progress this particular 13-year-old had made.  The reading coach started to say something, but her voice broke and she looked quickly away.  After a few moments, she told me how worried she had been about this student and that nothing she or his teachers had tried ever seemed to make a difference.  'Last year, he started acting out and his bad behavior landed him in the principal’s office many times; I thought we were losing him.'  Abruptly, she called the student’s name and asked him to come up to her desk.  He approached with great dread and a downcast look, but as soon as he reached her, she said, 'I am so proud of you, just look at what you’ve accomplished!' 

He looked startled and didn’t seem to understand what she just said.  When she saw his quizzical gaze, she pointed to the computer and asked him to see for himself what she meant.  He leaned in to peer at the screen and she began explaining his graphs, charts and scores.  She showed him how much his reading level had improved since he began working on Fast ForWord and praised his determination for sticking with the work and not giving up.  I asked him if he had noticed any difference.  Shyly, he said, 'Well, I like to read now and I didn’t before plus I haven’t got in trouble this year.'

With tears in her eyes, his teacher couldn’t resist placing her arm around his shoulders and announcing his success to the whole class.  I could tell the student was unaccustomed to such academic praise, but it didn’t take him long to flash a brilliant smile and I could see his whole body relax into the joy of the moment.  Both teacher and student were thrilled.

At the time, I remember thinking how that brief recognition could very well change the trajectory of this student’s life – from one with little possibility to one with infinite possibilities.  Where once there was misunderstanding, frustration and anger with learning, now there was comprehension, clarity and pride. 

And isn’t that why we become teachers?" 

Related Reading:

Our Lives Change, Too: From Fast ForWord® Skeptic to Believer

Indispensible Automaticity: How Reading Frees the Mind to Learn

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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

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, child reading development, emotions in learning, improving reading skills, learning environment, learning to read, literacy, middle school learning, motivating students, reading comprehension, reading intervention, student reading growth, teacher impact, technology in education

48% More Students Newly Proficient on GA CRCT After Fast ForWord Use

• April 7, 2011 by Melissa Agocs

Every spring, the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, abbreviated CRCT, are administered to students in Georgia.  The CRCT is designed to measure how well students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the Georgia Performance Standards. Students are tested in Reading, English Language Arts and Mathematics.  It is given every spring to all students in grades 1-8 and the students included in this study were first through eighth graders.

Students who used the Fast ForWord products generally started with the Fast ForWord Language or Fast ForWord Literacy products. During the 2007 – 2008 school year, some students started on the Fast ForWord Reading products, progressing as far as the Fast ForWord Reading Level 3 product.  On average, students used the products for 60 – 70 days during a 6 month period.

The first wave of Fast ForWord participants at Clarke County started using the products between the 2006 and 2007 tests and made statistically significant improvements on the spring 2007 CRCT with continued improvements in 2008.  Students in the second wave started using the products between the 2007 and 2008 tests and made statistically significant improvements on the spring 2008 CRCT.  The third group served as the comparison group and did not use the products until after the 2008 test. The students who used the Fast ForWord products made more improvements in their reading achievement, crossing the proficiency threshold, compared to the students who did not use the products. In fact, 40% of the participants who were not proficient in 2006 reached proficiency in 2007 compared to 27% of the non-proficient students who did not use products.

In addition to longitudinal results, data were also analyzed for certain demographic groups, including students who were receiving Special Education services and students with Limited English Proficiency. Both groups achieved statistically significant improvements on the CRCT Reading Test after Fast ForWord participation. Students who were receiving Special Education services and who used Fast ForWord products made significant gains in their reading scores, but more importantly, these gains were significantly greater than the gains made by the comparison group.  Similarly, students with limited English proficiency who used Fast ForWord products also made significant gains in their reading scores that were significantly greater than the gains made by the comparison group.

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Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!

Categories: Brain Fitness, English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: academic proficiency, accelerate learning, achievement gap, child reading development, elementary school learning, improving reading skills, increased test scores, language learning, learning to read, literacy, middle school learning, reading test gains, student reading growth, technology in education

After Just 24 Days, Summer School Students Significantly Improve Reading Scores

• March 24, 2011 by Logan De Ley

In a 5-week summer program, students at eleven schools from Wayne County Public Schools in North Carolina used the Reading Assistant software from Scientific Learning. To evaluate the impact of this program, the district conducted an observational study using reading scores, collected before and after the intervention, from 117 students.

The outcomes measure used for the study was Reading Progress Indicator - RPI for short. This computer-based assessment is standardized and nationally normed, and it is correlated with other widely used reading measures. RPI assesses student learning in four key skill areas: phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Study participants used Reading Assistant software, which combines advanced speech verification technology with research-based interventions to function as a personal tutor for guided oral reading practice. On average, the study participants worked with the software for a total of 6.3 hours over a 24 day period.

At the beginning of Wayne County’s summer program, the study participants scored at the 21^st percentile in reading skills, on average. Five weeks later, after working with Reading Assistant, the study group moved to the 30^th percentile in reading skills – a statistically significant improvement. They also improved their average reading level, moving from “struggling readers” to “emerging readers.”

Related Reading:

How Does Learning Coach Technology Work?

Can Scientific Learning Products Improve School Test Scores?

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Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!

Categories: Education Trends, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, below grade level, child reading development, how children learn, improving reading skills, increased test scores, literacy, phonemic awareness, reading test gains, student reading growth, technology in education, vocabulary

How Learning to Read Improves Brain Function

• March 16, 2011 by Martha Burns, Ph.D

Did you know that school is not just about learning new information; it is also about improving brain function?  Of course the content learned in coursework like social studies, science, geography and mathematics is very important. But, it turns out that learning to read does far more than impart a skill.  Recent research by the neuroscientist Stanislaus Dehaene indicates that learning to read actually improves the way the brain functions in several critical ways.
 
Dr. Dehaene and his colleagues compared the brain function of Brazilian and Portuguese adults who can read with those who had never learned to read. He reported the results in the journal Science in December. In the study the scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain function of adults while they responded to oral language, written language, and visual tasks. The adults were matched for socio-economic status (SES) so as not to bias the results by educational or income level. Thirty-one of the adults had been literate from childhood, twenty-two had learned to read as adults, and ten had never learned to read (were illiterate). What they found was that regions of the brain that all of us use to process visual information were enhanced among the adults who were readers; both those who had read from childhood and those who learned to read as adults. They also found that listening skills were better among both groups of readers than among the adults who did not read. The specific listening skill that was enhanced in readers involved the ability to perceive speech sounds more accurately.  
 
This research has important implications for those of us interested in education. It helps us to understand the importance of reading in the educational process, of course. But, perhaps even more important, it helps to explain why children who struggle to read fall so far behind in other school subjects as well. If, as Dehaene’s research suggests, the ability to read helps build parts of the brain that are essential for listening and observing, students who struggle to read may also have problems learning from auditory classroom instruction as well.  Thus they become hampered in three ways – they cannot learn to read, so will not be able to read to learn, and may struggle just as much with other forms of instruction.  
                                                                                       
Another issue is why children struggle to read in the first place. Dehaene’s research with adults controlled for this possible variable by controlling for socio-economic status and including adults who did not learn to read until they were adults. But in the United States as in other countries where education is mandatory for every child, there is a question as to why some children find learning to read so difficult.  Two new studies appear to shed light on that issue and seem related to Dehaene’s research. Bart Boets and his colleagues at the University of Leuven in Belgium have research that is to be published in the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities, that indicates a sort of double-whammy – children who in kindergarten have trouble with auditory perception, are likely to be diagnosed with dyslexia by grade 3.

Cassandra  Billiet  and Terri Bellis have also published research on the relationship between auditory perception and dyslexia in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research in February 2011 Both research studies suggest that problems with processing of rapid sound changes, like those that occur in speech,  may interfere with learning to read in the first place. When considered in light of Dehaene’s research, children who struggle to learn to read likely end up at a further disadvantage as school progresses  because auditory skills do not continue to develop which, in turn, will affect all classroom learning.
 
Most of us would agree that learning to read is one of the most important tasks a child undertakes when they enter school. This new research helps us to understand that reading depends on listening skills in the first place and then builds them as reading improves. The science described in this study is the same science upon which Scientific Learning’s Fast ForWord software is built, there is strong evidence of its validity, from a variety of schools/districts and independent research labs.  Reading builds brain functions essential for listening and learning:  good readers become good listeners become good students. Helping students as early as possible with the underlying cognitive skills that enable reading will have academic benefits for years to come.

 

References

Billiets, C and Bellis, T. (2011) The Relationship Between Brainstem Temporal Processing and Performance on Tests of Central Auditory Function in Children With Reading Disorders. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.54 228-242

Boets, B. et al (In Press) Preschool impairments in auditory processing and speech perception uniquely predict future reading problems. Research in Developmental Disabilities

Dehaene, S, et al.(2010)How Learning to Read Changes the Cortical Networks for Vision and Language. Science 330, 1359

 

Related Reading:

Fit Bodies Make Fit Brains: Physical Exercise and Brain Cells

Musical Training and Cognitive Abilities

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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, Reading & Learning

Tags: brain training, child reading development, cognitive skills, fMRI, how children learn, learning to read, student reading growth