While our mission is to provide students greater opportunity to be successful learners for their own sake, we understand that schools are currently under extreme pressure to have students excel on standardized testing. We focus on the prevention of reading difficulties with the immediate objective of ensuring every 3rd grade student passes the state reading assessment. 100% success is difficult to achieve but possible in many cases; 90% is a reasonable goal for most schools. Significant gains can be achieved in one year, but it will take 2-3 years to complete one cycle and bring the school to steady-state reading achievement levels.
We also understand that schools face the challenge of improving test scores for older students. Our program can help. In one school we worked with the 60 lowest performing students who failed the state assessment the previous year. Post intervention, 57 out of 60 students passed the state assessment. Success may vary by school and is dependent upon many different factors, including the beginning skill levels of the students, the intensity and consistency of training and the overall degree to which the implementation protocols are followed. Older students with significantly weak skills who are behind need one year to close the skill gap and 1-2 years to then close the achievement gap to catch up on academic subjects.