Prior Early Reading Pilot Project
The International Education Institute previously set up a very successful Early Reading Research Project that developed strong evidence that preschoolers and kindergartners can learn to read at a second-grade level with Frontline's multi-sensory instruction.
The Frontline Reading Curriculum we have been testing involves a powerful music-enhanced approach that appeals to visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles simultaneously. Teachers have been surprised at how involved the students become in the music – even the boys!
Even an ESL class participating in the Pilot Project out-scored the average mainstream classes not using Frontline.
The Institute has found Frontline to be a very powerful curriculum. And now grant funding has been secured by Frontline to spread this Early Reading Project to cover up to 40,000 students over the next two years – at absolutely no cost to the schools. It will cost $0 for the curriculum, $0 for the training and $0 for the assessments. And because this is a private grant, the application and administration is a snap. In addition, this grant could be used as matching funds for other grants you may want to pursue.
Please take a look at our review and let us know if you might like to participate in this project.
SURVEY OF PILOT STUDY TEACHERS
Every Pilot Project teacher – 100% -- said the curriculum being tested was as good as or better than the best reading curriculum they had ever used – with most of the teachers saying the curriculum is far better. The teachers evaluated the curriculum from several perspectives, responding to a series of eight questions. The teachers were asked to rate the Pilot curriculum with the following scoring values:
1 = Much worse than best curriculum previously used.
2 = A little worse than best curriculum previously used.
3 = About the same as best curriculum previously used.
4 = A little better than best curriculum previously used.
5 = Much better than best curriculum previously used.
Note that a score of "3" is a very good score. It means AS GOOD AS THE BEST THEY'VE SEEN. So an average score of 4.4 on all eight of these questions about decoding, blending, comprehension, etc., is EXTRAORDINARY.
QUESTIONS WITH AVERAGE RESPONSE:
RATING OF THE PILOT CURRICULUM
AVERAGE
COMPARED TO BEST CURRICULUM USED IN THE PAST
SCORE
1) In how long it takes with the Pilot curriculum for children
to learn the letter names.
4.2
2) In how long it takes with the Pilot curriculum for children
to learn the letter sounds.
4.6
3) In how long it takes to get children blending words. 4.0
4) How long it takes to get children reading complete sentences. 4.1
5) How well it helps children build reading vocabulary. 4.4
6) In terms of reading age, level your average reader achieved. 4.8
7) In terms of reading age, level your better readers achieved. 4.9
8) In terms of reading age, level your worst readers achieved. 4.2
AVERAGE RESPONSE TO ALL QUESTIONS: 4.4
Notes from Curriculum Developer
Despite the very positive results, the curriculum developer pointed out that some teachers were not achieving as much success as others because they were not following the program as designed. Those teachers, for example, who said they had used the curriculum to teach all the letters and sounds, but whose students had not completed at least the first set of books were clearly not following the lesson plans.
Teachers who teach letters and sounds separate from the individual reading books are missing the primary power of the curriculum, he said. "One of the things that drives the program is that children start blending words and reading books after learning just a few letters. This really motivates them. They need to be reading words and they need to be reading books after just a handful of letters to reinforce these skills. If teachers do not follow the lessons as outlined, they won’t have the same results."
With grant funding of the Early Reading Project and being able to give the curriculum to schools free of charge, teachers will be required to follow the lesson plans more closely.
CONCLUSIONS
The importance of helping children become early readers is clear. The cliché is all too true: "Until third grade children learn to read. After third grade they read to learn." Children who do not read at grade level before fourth grade then begin falling behind in all subjects because they cannot fully comprehend their textbooks. These children then begin developing a negative self-image, and by sixth grade they are 10 times as likely to be sent to the principal's office for disciplinary problems.
Following their departure from school, student who read poorly then fill our welfare roles, our prisons and our minimum-wage, dead-end jobs. Just the financial cost to our economy has been estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
The cost of illiteracy and low literacy in terms of impact on individuals' lives and on our society as a whole is just too great not to address with every available resource.
The International Education Institute believes that children can and should be taught how to read beginning at a much earlier age than expected in American society. Preschools and kindergartens can effectively teach reading in just a few minutes a day with this fun, music-enhanced method.
With this reading curriculum it appears that President Bush’s No Child Left Behind mandates CAN be achieved.