Press Releases

Anson County School District Recognized For Helping Struggling Readers Achieve Significant Gains

District is named a National Reference Site by Scientific Learning Corp. for its successful use of Fast ForWord reading intervention software

2/25/09

Media Contact:
Jessica Lindl
Vice President of Marketing
Scientific Learning Corporation
(510) 625-6784
jlindl@scilearn.com

Investor Contact: 
Robert Feller
Chief Financial Officer
Scientific Learning Corporation
(510) 625-2281
investorrelations@scilearn.com

Oakland, Calif. - Feb. 25, 2009 - Scientific Learning Corp. (NASDAQ:SCIL) has selected the Anson County School District in North Carolina as a National Reference Site for its outstanding use of the company's Fast ForWord® program. Fast ForWord is a family of educational software products that accelerate learning by developing the student brain to process more efficiently.

Anson County was selected due to its strong implementation of the Fast ForWord program and significant student gains. For example, during the 2007-08 school year, students with disabilities at Peachland-Polkton Elementary School who used the Fast ForWord software exceeded state performance goals and made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the first time in four years. Overall, 52.5 percent of students with disabilities scored at or above grade level on the North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) Tests in reading, surpassing the state's goal of 43.2 percent. In addition, students with disabilities outscored their peers in regular education classrooms on the EOG Tests in reading. The most growth was in grade four where 82.4 percent of students with disabilities performed at or above grade level on the EOG Tests in reading, compared to 48.3 percent of regular education students.

"Across the district, we've seen anywhere from one to three years of growth in many of our students," said Superintendent Greg Firn. "For some students, we've seen gains of as much as five years. We have had students pass state assessments that they could not pass before. There are many instances we can point to where the Fast ForWord program is the cause of students' success. A key benefit of the program is that it allows us to more effectively leverage our resources - our time, technology, learning tools, teaming and training - to help our classroom teachers improve student learning."

Anson County School District began using the Fast ForWord software in fall 2007 in all nine schools to improve reading proficiency among at-risk students and students with disabilities. "At the time, we felt we were not meeting the needs of our exceptional children and at-risk children as well as we could," said Nancy Bricker, a teacher and Fast ForWord coach at Peachland-Polkton Elementary. "Many children enter our schools with language deficits. We tried all the traditional interventions but were not seeing the progress we had hoped for. We felt the Fast ForWord program could help because it targets the exact areas in which children are having difficulty."

Throughout the district, selected students work with the Fast ForWord software 40 minutes per day, five days a week. "We know Fast ForWord accelerates learning for all students," said Michael Freeman, executive director of teaching and learning for Anson County School District and former principal of Peachland-Polkton Elementary. "We encourage schools to use the Fast ForWord program with as many students as they can. The program is even used at Anson County Early College High School to help students who need to strengthen their skills so they can begin taking community college-level courses."

At each school, teachers report that as a result of working the Fast ForWord software, students are showing improvements in their memory, attention, processing rate and sequencing. Teachers have also noticed positive changes in students' attitudes toward learning.

"One of the greatest benefits of the Fast ForWord program is that children are making lifelong changes in their learning that extend well beyond passing a course or getting a good report card," said Freeman. "That's what makes this product different than anything else we've ever done. Teachers tell us children are more attentive, and better able to focus and complete their work. These changes can have a positive impact on students' performance across all subjects for the rest of their schooling and for the rest of their lives."

About Anson County School District

Anson County's rural school system is located about 45 miles east of Charlotte, N.C. The district enrolls 4,432 students in six elementary schools, one middle school, three high schools and one alternative school. More than 74 percent of students receive free and reduced meals.

About Scientific Learning Corp.

Scientific Learning creates educational software that accelerates learning by improving the processing efficiency of the brain. Based on more than 30 years of neuroscience and cognitive research, the Fast ForWord® family of products provides struggling readers with computer-delivered exercises that build the cognitive skills required to read and learn effectively. Scientific Learning Reading Assistant^TM combines advanced speech recognition technology with scientifically-based courseware to help students strengthen fluency, vocabulary and comprehension to become proficient, lifelong readers. The efficacy of the products has been established by more than 550 research studies and publications. For more information, visit http://www.scientificlearning.com/ or call toll-free 888-452-7323.