In Independent Study of Fast ForWord, Sixth-Grade Students Exceed Expected Gains

• February 2, 2012 by Melissa Agocs

Hello. This presentation will review achievement gains made at the Bulloch County Schools in Georgia after students used the Fast ForWord^® products. This was an independent study conducted by Dr. Jody Woodrum, an Assistant Superintendent at the district.

The Bulloch County Schools started using the Fast ForWord products at selected schools during the 2007-2008 school year.  The district’s focus was on students close to proficiency in reading or language arts. In the fall of 2009, the Langston Chapel Middle School expanded its implementation to all sixth graders, regardless of ability level. This summary is about these sixth graders.

The students in this study used various Fast ForWord products, including the Fast ForWord Literacy, Fast ForWord Literacy Advanced, Fast ForWord Reading Prep, and Fast ForWord Reading Level 1 – 5 products. The participating school’s Fast ForWord Participation and Attendance were routinely considered “Gold Cap,” which is a high standard to strive for and shows that the school was adhering to the protocol.

Study participants were evaluated using the Measures of Academic Progress, abbreviated as MAP.  Developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), the MAP are state-aligned, computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measure growth over time.  The MAP are appropriate for students in grades 2 through 10 and are available to evaluate student achievement in a variety of subject areas including reading, language arts, math, and science.

The MAP uses a measure of improvement called the Growth National Percentile Rank, which is a percentile rank of growth relative to “academic peers” – students in similar grades and at similar achievement levels.  On average, Fast ForWord participants made gains on the MAP, and for students who made gains, the gains were very large, corresponding to high Growth National Percentile Ranks. The next two graphs look at the Reading and English Language Arts results more closely.

Overall, 64% of participants from both groups of students – on and above grade level, and below grade level – increased their percentile rank on the Reading portion of the MAP. For the students who made gains, the gains corresponded to the 98^th percentile, which is considered very large and exceeded the expected improvement on the Reading component.

On the English Language Arts component of the MAP, 77% of participants made gains.  Once again, the improvement of both groups of Fast ForWord participants exceeded the expected improvement and the gains that were achieved were substantial – at the 99^th percentile.

Analyses by the staff at Bulloch County indicated that high gains were seen regardless of the students’ prior achievement levels, and regardless of the highest Fast ForWord product completed.

Thank you for your time. This video was a brief summary of the rigorous study from Bulloch County. For further detail, please reference Dr. Woodrum’s full report on the Scientific Learning website at www.scientificlearning.com/woodrum.

Related Reading:

60% of Middle and High School Learners Exceed FCAT Annual Learning Gain Expectations

Fifth Graders Make Significantly Greater Gains than a Comparison Group Across Multiple Subjects After Fast ForWord

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Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, improving reading skills, increased test scores, language learning, literacy, MAP, middle school learning, student growth, technology in education, video

Seldon’s Story: Testing Out of Special Education

• January 19, 2012 by Norene Wiesen

This post is the eighth in a series aimed at sharing the success stories, both personal and professional, that Scientific Learning employees witness every day.

“I think one of the reasons that this job has been so different from my other jobs as a classroom teacher or working in print has been my journey as I have grown to understand the Scientific Learning programs and how effective they are.  

The one student that I can call to mind very vividly is Danielle.  She was a 3rd grader and she had just recently qualified for special services.   Her district was having her use the [Fast ForWord] program over the summer.  

I had the chance to visit her and her district representative as she was going through the programs. She was having some real attentional problems and was also having difficulties in reading. She was really excited about going through the program and by the end of the summer she had really grown so much that when she went back to school in the fall, she actually tested out of her special education label. 

I was invited to attend the [Admission, Review, and Dismissal] Meeting and it was amazing to see her teachers look at the data and say ‘Wow - this happened over the summer!’ They were really in awe and, at first, disbelief.  They then realized she was able to focus, pay attention and be successful at the tasks she had to do at school.  She was able to be much more independent and be successful on her own.”

Related Reading:

Corey’s Story: My Son No Longer Needs Intervention After Using Fast ForWord

Sara’s Story: From 6 Months Behind in Reading to the Accelerated Reading Class

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Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Special Education

Tags: academic success, attention, employee stories, improving reading skills, student growth, success stories, video

Fifth Graders Make Significantly Greater Gains than a Comparison Group Across Multiple Subjects After Fast ForWord

• December 27, 2011 by Melissa Agocs

The Grand Forks Public Schools in Grand Forks, ND, wanted to evaluate the effects of the Fast ForWord® products on the academic achievement of their students. A study was designed such that students at one elementary school used the Fast ForWord products and comparable students at a different elementary school served as the comparison group. Both elementary schools fed into the same middle school and the study participants were in the fifth grade at the time of Fast ForWord use.

Students used the 30-minute protocols, which call for students to use the Fast ForWord products for 30 minutes a day, five days per week for 12 to 16 weeks.  Students used the products for an average of 132 days across 11 months.

The Measures of Academic Progress, abbreviated as MAP, are state-aligned computerized adaptive tests, administered by the district each spring.  They accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measure growth over time. The Grand Forks Public School District uses the MAP to assess students in third through eighth grades.

A comparison of the fifth graders at the two elementary schools showed that students at the school using FastForWord products made significantly greater improvements in all areas tested compared to the students at the school that did not use the products. The areas tested were reading, language, and math, with the study results demonstrating that the products can positively impact achievement across multiple subject areas.

Related Reading:

Longitudinal Study Shows Significant Fast ForWord® Gains Endure Over Time

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

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

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, achievement gap, improving reading skills, increased test scores, learning to read, literacy, math, reading comprehension, student growth, success stories, technology in education, video

Corey’s Story: My Son No Longer Needs Intervention After Using Fast ForWord

• December 8, 2011 by Norene Wiesen

This post is the seventh in a series aimed at sharing the success stories, both personal and professional, that Scientific Learning employees witness every day.

“My son personally was identified in kindergarten as a struggling learner.  He is a July baby and he started kindergarten at a very young age five.   Right away, red flags were going up for the teacher.  Emotionally, academically, developmentally, we realized that he might not have been ready to acquire the skills that were being taught in the kindergarten classroom.

We worked really hard over the summer to put Zack through [Fast ForWord] Language Basics and [Fast ForWord] Reading Prep*.  These products are really appropriate for a kindergarten-aged learner. 

When he returned to school in the fall and he was re-assessed for intervention, the teacher made a comment: ‘I don’t know what you’ve done with Zack over the summer, but his scores are now above where he needs to be and we no longer will need to provide him with any intervention support. We are just going to continue to monitor him and watch and make sure he continues to grow along the right pathway.’

It brought tears to my eyes knowing that we continued to do the right things and the only one variable that changed was using Fast ForWord with him.  It built his confidence and built his self-esteem.”

*Note: Fast ForWord® Language Basics and Reading Prep are no longer available.  Current Fast ForWord products for kindergarten-aged learners include Fast ForWord Language and Reading Readiness.

Related Reading:

Sara’s Story: From 6 Months Behind In Reading to the Accelerated Reading Class

Joel’s Story: My Nephew’s Reading Skills Improved 1.5 Years in 3 Months with Fast ForWord

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Categories: Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, child reading development, early learning, employee stories, how children learn, intervention, learning to read, oral language skills, self-esteem, student growth, success stories, technology in education, video

Sara’s Story: From 6 Months Behind In Reading to the Accelerated Reading Class

• November 17, 2011 by Norene Wiesen

This post is the sixth in a series aimed at sharing the success stories, both personal and professional, that Scientific Learning employees witness every day.

Sara’s story:

"I was a Fast ForWord coach before I came to work for Scientific Learning and I absolutely loved the program, which is one of the reasons that I came to work here.

I have one story about a young man who was in first grade and was struggling a little bit with reading.  He was about sixth months behind by the time he got through first grade and his mom recognized that immediately.   She had always read to him, but there was just something he was missing and she couldn’t figure it out.

She came and talked to me one day and asked about the Fast ForWord program. We had just started working with the kids at school and I said, 'Put him in.  We’ll see how he does.'  He finished Fast ForWord Language and when back to the regular classroom, within two months he tested again with a reading test in his classroom and he was up to grade level, which was excellent.  We were so excited and he was excited because school was easier. 

The next year when he came back, he was a second grader.  His mom said, 'I want him to do Fast ForWord again because I want him to stay with the rest of the class or even go a little bit above it.'  He worked really hard, got through another two programs, finished for that year and the next year when he came back in for third grade, he tested into the gifted class. 

Now this young man is a fifth grader and he’s been in the accelerated reading class ever since."

Related Reading:

Joel’s Story: My Nephew’s Reading Skills Improved 1½ Years in 3 Months with Fast ForWord

My Son Announced He Was Dropping Out of High School: Mary’s Story

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, below grade level, child reading development, employee stories, improving reading skills, increased test scores, student growth, success stories, technology in education, video

Joel’s Story: My Nephew’s Reading Skills Improved 1½ Years in 3 Months with Fast ForWord

• October 27, 2011 by Norene Wiesen

This post is the fifth in a series aimed at sharing the success stories, both personal and professional, that Scientific Learning employees witness every day.

Joel’s Story:

“The story is about my nephew.  He has moved around a bit because his father is in the military.  He has had a little bit of a break up in his school experience and his first several years of school.

They could never quite pin down what wasn’t working for him, but he just wasn’t maximizing his potential.  His mother knew that and my sister knew that but they couldn’t ever get him long enough in one place to ever nail down what was going on. 

Finally they got a test done in the 4^th grade that showed he was two years below reading level.  He could read pretty well but he had a hard time comprehending what he was reading and understanding what it meant.  We also uncovered that sometimes he struggled with unfamiliar words so we suspected that there might be some decoding issues as well.  I said to put him on [Fast ForWord] Language v2.  He ran through Language v2.  His initial RPI scores indicated that he was two years below grade level and he was struggling with decoding and reading comprehension. 

He finished Language v2 in just over 3 months and his RPI—Reading Progress Indicator—scores went up one and a half years.  He finished his way through [Fast ForWord] Language to Reading v2 and he now is reading on grade level. 

He is in a small, small school district in the Midwest and may not be there long because of the nature of his father’s job.  Both his father and mother were amazed by the results of the Fast ForWord programs.”

Related Reading:

Building Fluent Readers: How Oral Reading Practice Helps Reading Comprehension

The Essential Nature of Developing Oral Reading Fluency

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Categories: Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, child reading development, employee stories, improving reading skills, reading comprehension, student growth, success stories, technology in education, video

60% of Middle and High School Learners Exceed FCAT Annual Learning Gain Expectations

• October 18, 2011 by Melissa Agocs

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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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, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: academic success, assessments, high school learning, increased test scores, middle school learning, student growth, success stories, technology in education, video

Introducing the Eddy’s Number Party! Game – the First iPad App from Scientific Learning

• October 17, 2011 by Erin Ellinwood

Hi! My name is Erin Ellinwood and I’m a product manager at Scientific Learning.   I am super excited to write about our first ever iPad App, the Eddy’s Number Party!™game, for preschool and kindergarten aged children.  Our products have always been grounded in science and built with scientific advisors, and this game is no exception.  Equally pairing early math curriculum with two critical cognitive skills, working memory and attention, Eddy’s Number Party! helps prepare kids for success in kindergarten and beyond. In the game, kids help Eddy’s friends surprise him with the biggest dog birthday party ever and practice counting, remembering, and matching numbers.

Designed for Young Learners

Our roots here at Scientific Learning are in developing cutting edge adaptive learning games for delivery on desktop or laptop computers.  Because this game targets a younger audience, we talked to teachers and educational experts to see what technology they thought would be best for preschool and kindergarten age learners.  The resounding feedback we heard was that our game would be most developmentally appropriate on the iPad.  And so, our first iPad app was born.

Makes Learning Fun (We’re Getting Great Reviews from Our Kid Testers!)

Sometimes learning can feel monotonous, especially for 3 to 5 year olds, so we added some key components to help break things up: 

• Story:  Nothing engages kids like a good story.  Since most young children love birthday parties, the game is centered around a party for the adorable dog, Eddy.  “But,” the game asks, “where are all his friends?” As kids advance through the game levels, they round up more and more friends, culminating in a fun party scene and acknowledgement of the child’s accomplishment: “You did it, you got all of Eddy’s friends to his party!”
• Bonus levels: The bonus levels add variety and keep interest while reinforcing the learning objectives.  Our cognitive science advisors call the bonus activities “palate cleansers,” a nice but productive break from the “drill”. 
• Engagement: We’ve pumped up the engagement in a big way, because we know that when it comes to kids and iPads, it’s all about fun.
• In-app sticker play: As a child masters each learning level, the game awards a sticker, but not just a regular sticker—it’s a funny “talking” sticker.   It has been so much fun to see each of our kid testers collect the stickers and get excited about creating their party!   Plus, research shows that kids benefit from a reward structure.  Stickers are a reward that preschool and kindergarten age children really identify with, and the sticker play can add hours of creative interaction.

Includes and Enables Parents

Grown-Up Central is a unique feature among apps for kids (and my favorite part of the app).  I believe that it is important to give parents the ability to review the game’s goals, tour all game levels, and learn about the underlying research and development behind the game. In addition to all of the information it provides about the app itself, Grown-Up Central also features a visual report card that shows a child’s progress and gives suggestions at each level for “what to look for” (such as a child beginning to count up from a known quantity) and how to further “bring learning to life” (such as cooking with the child from a recipe).

Being the product manager for the Eddy's Number Party! game has been a fantastic challenge, and I’m proud of the result.

I hope to see you at the party! Click here to download from Apple’s iTunes App Store or visit the App Store and search for "Eddy’s Number Party!”

And, if you like the app, please consider leaving a review in the App Store!

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Categories: Family Focus, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research

Tags: accelerate learning, attention, brain training, cognitive skills, digital natives, early learning, how children learn, innovation, learning through play, math, memory, play, technology in education, video

Longitudinal Study Shows Significant Fast ForWord^® Gains Endure Over Time

• October 6, 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. This summary will concentrate on the reading results from the Clarke County School District in Georgia.  The CRCT is given every spring to all students in grades 1-8, and the students included in this study were first through eighth graders during the time of the study.

A longitudinal study is a type of study that follows the same subjects over time. Clarke County students who used the Fast ForWord products generally started with the Fast ForWord^® Language or Fast ForWord^® Literacy series, with students then progressing through the Fast ForWord^® Reading series. Students started on the products during different years, with some starting as early as the 2006-2007 school year, and others starting aslate as the 2010-2011 school year.

The first wave of Fast ForWord participants at Clarke County started using the products in the fall of 2006 and made statistically significant improvements on the spring 2007 CRCT with continued improvements in 2008 and the following years.  Students in the second wave started using the products in the fall of 2007 and made statistically significant improvements on the spring 2008 CRCT.

After a third group started in 2008 school year, the group’s CRCT scores significantly increased and then continued to go up.  Similarly, students who began using the products in 2009 and 2010 also started to show increases in their reading scores after Fast ForWord participation.

Each cohort exhibits a similar pattern in that after Fast ForWord participation started, on average, the group showed a steady increase in their CRCT reading scores with each passing year.

Looking at the students who started using Fast ForWord products in 2010, there was an increase in the percentage of students reaching reading proficiency, with 55% of students who were not proficient in 2010 crossing the proficiency threshold in 2011.

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.

If you have questions on this study or any other Fast ForWord study, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Team.

Related Reading:

Fast ForWord^® Language Series Has Greatest Impact of Any Intervention Listed by NCRTI

My Nephew Was a Struggling Learner (Not Anymore!): Carrie’s Story

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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, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research, Special Education

Tags: academic success, accelerate learning, child reading development, elementary school learning, improving reading skills, increased test scores, literacy, middle school learning, reading comprehension, reading intervention, technology in education, video

Fast ForWord^® Language Series Has Greatest Impact of Any Intervention Listed by NCRTI

• September 22, 2011 by Norene Wiesen

Educators and families who are looking for appropriate learning interventions for students often turn to The Instructional Intervention Tools Chart from the National Center on Response to Intervention (NCRTI).  Now, the Fast ForWord® Language series has been added to the chart, with the NCRTI evaluations of research on the series supporting the claim that the products have high-quality studies, demonstrating their effectiveness when used for Response to Intervention (RtI).

The effectiveness of the Fast ForWord Language series is evident from the “effect size” found by the NCRTI. Effect size is a statistical way to measure the magnitude of the effect of an intervention.  Of the three studies on the Fast ForWord Language series that have been evaluated by the NCRTI, one showed a medium effect size and the other two showed a large effect size. In fact, two of the three Scientific Learning studies were ranked as having the highest scores in effect size, showing that the Fast ForWord Language Series had the greatest impact and the largest positive effect of any intervention listed by the NCRTI.  These evaluations of research on the Fast ForWord Language series validate the quality of the studies behind the products, demonstrating their effectiveness when used for RtI.

The impact identified in the NCRTI evaluations holds up in real-world implementations, as well.  For example, one district used the Fast ForWord program as its only intervention for kindergarteners during the 2009-2010 school year, to see what kind of difference the program could make when used as the sole intervention for participating students.  Westerly Public Schools in southern Rhode Island identified kindergarten students who scored at the deficient or very deficient levels in letter sound fluency and letter naming fluency on the AIMSweb benchmark, and placed these students into the Fast ForWord program, with no other interventions.

After using the Fast ForWord program, test scores for the participating students rose substantially, and many were able to move off of the personal literacy plans they had been placed on as struggling elementary students.  Because only the Fast ForWord program was used, the district was able to determine that these effects were due to the students’ participation in the program.  And because the students didn’t need as many interventions, the district also saved money.

The NCRTI is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The center partners with researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Kansas to build the capacity of states to assist districts in implementing proven models for RTI.

Visit http://rti4success.org/instructionTools to see Scientific Learning’s listings on the NCRTI’s “Instructional Intervention Tools Chart.”

Watch the video on “effect size” and the NCRTI evaluation of the Fast ForWord Language series products.

Related Reading:

Results from a “Gold Standard Study” Show Significant Student Gains in Language and Literacy Skills

Intensive Intervention Tier 3: What Leads to the Need?

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

Tags: academic problems, improving reading skills, intervention, learning to read, reading intervention, response to intervention tier iii, rti tier iii, student growth, technology in education, video