A Measure of Success

When President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002, he sent educators and software companies scrambling. Why? The law, which requires that every child be able to read by the third grade, has forced librarians and teachers to find new ways to raise standardized test scores—and the makers of reading software are chasing after their dollars.

Under the act's Reading First program, low income schools will get $900 million over two years if they improve kids' reading skills. But in order to qualify for the federal money, schools must use reading programs that have been "scientifically proven" to work. That means their software must include the five building blocks of early literacy: phonemic awareness (the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds), phonics (the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language), as well as fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Although the Department of Education hasn't endorsed any instructional software as appropriate for the Reading First program, it does offer guidelines. In order to help educators understand how to qualify for the funds, Secretary of Education Rod Paige convened three conferences last winter to offer ways that state education agencies can better evaluate various reading programs on the market. Attendees were given copies of "A Consumer's Guide to Evaluating a Core Reading Program Grades K–3" (www.emsc.nysed.gov/nyc/PDFs/REAguide.pdf. For another valuable resource on the current state of reading research, see "Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science" [www.aft.org/edissues/downloads/rocketsci.pdf], a report prepared by the American Federation of Teachers.)

State education agencies, rather than the Department of Education, are determining which reading programs and schools qualify for the money. Richard Long, the International Reading Association's (IRA) director of government relations, says IRA supports No Child Left Behind, but adds he doesn't believe any reading program has been "scientifically proven" to work just yet.

Nevertheless, software companies such as Renaissance Learning and LeapFrog have teamed with researchers at several universities and private research firms to prove that their products meet federal requirements. Here are three examples of the latest reading software:

LeapFrog Schoolhouse Literacy Center. LeapFrog has performed extensive research in California and Texas, and the company claims it has made "statistically significant" gains in teaching early literacy skills. Literacy Center uses a popular device—recorded voices and glowing lights—to help children recognize both phonic and phonemic elements. It also uses another LeapFrog product, the LeapDesk, to help kids see and feel the shapes of letters while associating those shapes with their corresponding sounds. The software lets teachers assess students' skill levels and create personalized lessons for kids who need extra training in certain areas. The company's LeapPad device, marketed to schools, libraries, and consumers, accepts plug-in software cards and activity books aimed at preschool and primary grade children.

Many public libraries own and circulate LeapPads and their accompanying software. Sharon Lawrence of Downers Grove (IL) Public Library says the devices are incredibly popular and that her library hasn't had any sitting on the shelf since they arrived four months ago.

Teachers and librarians using LeapFrog materials are almost unanimously positive about it. Marilyn Loop, a librarian at Elaine Wynn Elementary School in Las Vegas, used donations to purchase 40 LeapPads for her library. "We've had a wonderful experience with them," she says. Loop's students visit the library on a fixed schedule, so she rotates their library activities, including their use of LeapPads. She also uses the device with her school's primarily Hispanic population, and checks out LeapPads that include Literacy Center activities for parents who are trying to improve their English language skills. For more information, visit www.leapfrogschoolhouse.com.

Riverdeep's Destination Reading. The Irish company Riverdeep (www.riverdeep.net) recently launched Destination Reading, a system that helps K–3 grade students learn basic phonic and phonemic awareness, as well as more sophisticated comprehension skills. Although the software is still being tested, it promises to be a major player in reading instruction.

Destination Reading technology makes it easier for educators to create custom lessons after the software has assessed each student's skills. The company says its system is designed to address students' various learning styles. Teachers can present the lessons as a drill or as a set of creative activities, with or without instructions, to meet the needs of children who need prompting.

Riverdeep recently concluded an 18-month development process and is working with literacy expert Victoria Purcell-Gates from Michigan State University to prove Destination Reading meets the government's requirements, says Christina Panza, product manager for Destination Reading. Panza says that No Child Left Behind has made a big difference for educators and software companies alike.

Renaissance Learning's Reading Renaissance. This company—which produces the popular, but controversial, Accelerated Reader, along with STAR Early Literacy and Fluent Reader—has developed Reading Renaissance to assess the reading skills of kindergartners to 12th graders.

Renaissance Learning combines all of the company's programs to help improve students' test scores and build critical-thinking skills. The company spent years documenting the program, hiring researchers to verify its effectiveness, as well as how well it meets many states' education standards.

Reading Renaissance supplements classroom curricula in reading, math, and writing with its software, professional development seminars, Web-based training tools, and other materials. Teresa Hoovestol, a reading specialist at Hardy Elementary School in Smithfield, VA, say Reading Renaissance helped improve her students' test scores. After using the program, 76.9 percent of her fifth graders scored at grade level or above on Virginia's state test. In 1998, prior to using the program, only 61 percent of fifth graders scored as high. "This program gives students more of a chance to read independently," says Hoovestol, who uses Renaissance Reading with the Accelerated Reader program. For more information, visit www.renlearn.com/reading.htm.

Will the new reading instruction software truly leave no children behind? Judy Van Scoter, an educational technology specialist at the Northwest Educational Research Laboratory in Portland, OR, says reading software can be effective, particularly when it emphasizes skills children need to practice. But in her opinion, the best software to use with early readers is the simplest—a word processing program. "Word processing is wonderful," she says. "Children can write stories, revise them, and read them back and hear their own words." Van Scoter hopes the emphasis being placed on higher reading test scores won't mean that schools will use software to force kids to read before they're ready. "I want every child to succeed, but they can't learn to succeed on a schedule," she says.