SuperTECH NEWS is the bi-monthly newsletter of the BLE GROUP, which provides small- and medium-size school systems with supplementary technology management to produce high-quality educational results and efficient management.

The purpose of SuperTECH NEWS is to provide education decision makers with concise information that allows them to make informed technology decisions to impact instruction, management and communication. This is information you can use on Monday morning.

Editor, Susan DeMark
Web Design, Charlene Polanosky
Publisher, Eliot Levinson

Our October issue theme is technology-delivered, research-based early reading programs Choose from the following articles.

	Note from Eliot—No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Assessment and Management Service. The BLE Group offers a new service for small and medium-size school systems. We assess where school districts are currently and exactly what they have to do to implement NCLB. The service also provides school systems the supplementary management support they need to purchase and implement the new technology-delivered programs.
	Theme of the Month—We look at technology-delivered, research-based early reading programs and tell you what to consider when you examine these systems. They'll go a long way in shaping the way reading is taught in the near future and are helping many schools meet the accountability requirements for early reading. This is not your grandfather or grandmother's Dick and Jane. Though they can be costly, these systems have made major breakthroughs and are worthy of your attention.
	Products and Applications—We take an in-depth look at four distinct early reading products that are the latest generation of technology-delivered solutions. They combine new-generation, rich multimedia with a foundation of scientifically valid research on how children initially learn to read and become proficient, fluent readers. This section examines the products and the technologies that are used, describes the research base, and explores delivery options.
	Best Practices —We tell you about how the Commons Lane Elementary School in Florissant, Missouri, has implemented a technology-delivered, research-based early reading program and share the results and lessons learned. Since 1999, Commons Lane has been using the Waterford Early Reading Program, multimedia instructional software with adaptive lessons and continual assessment. We interview the principal, Dr. Barbara Wright.
	Conferences—Check out the relevant conferences coming in the next several months.

We want to hear from you. What do you agree and disagree with on this issue (we will post comments from readers in the next issue). Please write us at eliot@blegroup.com.

DID YOU MISS AN ISSUE?
You can read past issues of SuperTECH NEWS relating to NCLB online:

• June 2004 - Focus: The Education Killer App
• March 2004 - Focus: Network and data security
• November 2003 - Focus: Handheld computers and software applications for these devices
• May 2003 - Focus: Data Warehousing and Data Management Solutions
• February 2003 - Focus: Web-based Assessment Products for High-Stakes Tests
• December 2002 - Focus: Student Information Systems
• August 2002 - Focus: Purchasing Hardware 2002
• June 2002 - Focus: Web-based Applications for Early Reading
• May 2002 - Focus: Web-based Professional Development
• March 2002 - Focus: Technology of Accountability

THE BLE Group's NCLB Assessment and Management Service

Why are we launched the NCLB Assessment and Management Service?

Technology is necessary to implement the No Child Left Behind Act. Technology is a central component to the solution of every facet of NCLB, whether it is teacher quality, the delivery of standards-based instruction, assessment, the monitoring of student progress, school-parent communication, or reading proficiency.

The BLE Group knows that small- and medium-size school systems—the 86 percent of school districts in the U.S. with fewer than 5,000 students—often lack the extensive resources and knowledge base to implement NCLB. They lack sufficient technologists and technology-savvy educators to plan and manage the Web-based instructional programs and assessment systems that are the solutions for NCLB. We make available reasonably priced services that can provide the expertise school systems need to address NCLB on a time-shared basis.

Excellent technology staff is expensive and hard to find. We've created the NCLB Assessment and Management Service as a means of supplementing the staffs of small school systems with our own team of skilled technologists and technology-savvy educators. We will help you plan and execute an effective NCLB program.

The NCLB Assessment and Management Service supplements the instructional and evaluation capability of small and mid-sized school systems so that they can effectively address No Child Left Behind. There are two tiers to the NCLB Assessment and Management Service. Tier 1—the NCLB assessment and plan—creates an assessment for districts on how effectively they are currently addressing the multiple requirements of NCLB, such as teacher quality, assessment, reading achievement, etc., and devises a specific plan to address NCLB. The plan includes new technology-based solutions, a schedule, and a timeline for addressing NCLB. Tier 2—the management service—supplies ongoing management support to districts. We furnish districts with ongoing service from the BLE Group to purchase products and provide supplementary management as districts implement their NCLB programs.

The NCLB Assessment and Management Service evaluates how well are you currently addressing NCLB and delivering on its mandates, and it centers on exactly what you should do over the next year to implement NCLB effectively so that your district's performance improves.

What are the specific areas of the BLE Group's NCLB assessment and plan?

The BLE Group provides an assessment and solution for the following NCLB requirements:

• Reading—Includes benchmarks, diagnostic testing
• Teacher Quality—Certification, paraprofessional certification, online training
• Testing—State standards, diagnostic testing
• Staff development—What is needed to meet certification, improve standards-based teaching, address technology skills linked to teaching
• Paraprofessionals—Tracking certification
• Management of NCLB—Planning for low-performing schools
• Information Analysis—The know-how to aggregate and disaggregate scores
• Grant proposals—What information is needed for the annual district proposal to include all students
• State accountability—What does the state have to do to improve accountability
  

The NCLB assessment and plan focuses on instruction, assessment, management systems, and technology. It includes:

• An annual implementation plan. Quarter by quarter, the plan lays out what has to be done in each of the 4 areas described above.
• A budget.
• An assessment of the current state of NCLB linked with specific recommendations on the items listed above.
  

NCLB Supplementary Management Service

Following are the supplementary management services that districts can make use of after the BLE Group assessment and plan. BLE Group CIOs and curriculum directors will supplement the district's staff with the following services:

• RFPs. For strategic systems purchases such as instructional management and on line assessment systems.
• Review of contracts. BLE will review district technology contracts and write effective contracts for the district.
• Monthly phone consultations and quarterly visits to address NCLB management.
• Vendor Management. BLE Group will oversee your NCLB vendors.
• Access to databases on instructional and administrative systems. BLE Group maintains confidential databases on management and instructional software for its' clients.
• Discounts from collaborative buying of hardware and instructional, assessment, and management software.
• SuperTECH NEWS newsletter. The newsletter delivers information to administrators on NCLB-related technology issues such as assessment, data warehousing, and instructional management.
  

If you are interested in the NCLB Assessment and Management Service, please contact us to discuss the matter further. The cost is reasonable.

Eliot Levinson <eliot@blegroup.com>, CEO,
THE BLE GROUP
202.281.1763

The Soliloquy Learning Reading Assistant is a software program that uses speech-recognition technology to help children learn to read. Soliloquy Learning calls fluency the greatest challenge in reading instruction today. The company's technology is based on the research finding that children acquire the basic skill of reading fluency by having children read and reread aloud to a supportive listener - guided oral reading. This reading solution is targeted primarily from the second half of Grade 1 up through Grade 5, though there are some junior high schools using it as a remedial program.

Soliloquy Learning, a startup company founded in California in 2000, has developed this solution. The company has spent millions of dollars developing this proprietary-software product and holds seven patent approvals. It first sold a consumer version of this as a supplemental reading program called Read It.

With Reading Assistant, proprietary speech-recognition software is used to automate the listening. The automated helper allows students to read while it tracks their progress and provides immediate feedback. Once signed in, students can use the Read to Me or Read and Record setting. Students read content such as rhymes, fiction, nonfiction, and folktales, from well-known publishers (e.g. Pearson Learning, Scott Foresman) into a microphone that is provided with the software program. In the Read and Record mode, as a student reads, the program records how well students perform and offers help when needed - by offering correct pronunciation of a word or giving a definition, and having the student repeat the word. As the child reads, it assesses the accuracy and rate of reading. Color coding selected though a "How Am I Doing?" icon helps students and teachers see which words were problematic.

Teachers choose the reading selections and can tailor the oral reading exercises by topic, genre, and reading level. They also receive performance data on which they can guide further instruction and can set custom profiles for individual students, improving speech-recognition sensitivity. Soliloquy Learning, like some other companies in this space, aims to use technology to help solve the labor-intensive process of having teachers listen to and provide immediate feedback to early readers. As the company notes, "even 5 minutes a day or supported reading time is far more than any teacher can deliver to each of her 20 or more students."

A key positive of Soliloquy's product is the options it affords in early reading instruction: to read aloud and record, to read along with the professional tutor, to listen to or read along with the student's recorded voice. Teachers can implement the Reading Assistant according to their schedules, making it a flexible solution. It includes a record-and-playback feature, quizzes to build and measure fluency and comprehension, and a context-sensitive dictionary.

As company CEO and President Dick Callahan explained, in order to target schools and expand its use into the classroom, Soliloquy Learning had to make sure the product was even more accurate (e.g. not having false positives, false negatives) than any consumer-targeted version. Generic speech-recognition programs operate at an 80-percent accuracy rate, but Soliloquy Learning set an objective of over 99 percent accuracy in the speech-recognition software for a major launch in schools - and it hit this metric last January. "We call it reading verification - it verifies that the kid is really reading what he is supposed to be reading," explains Callahan. The company is now launching this version, Reading Assistant, V. 3, with computer- and network-based programs. Currently, about 200 schools are using the previous iteration of Reading Assistant. Several states have approved of the Soliloquy product for use for Reading First monies.

Headsprout Early Reading is a research-based, online supplemental early reading instruction program for pre-K, K, and 1st and 2nd grades. It's comprised of 80 online lessons, 20 to 30 minutes per lesson. There are also accompanying print support materials ranging from duplication masters for 60 stories and flash cards to a teacher's guide. It generates automated classroom and individual assessment and performance reports that track the progress of each student.

The program provides instruction on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and it teaches segmenting, blending, and decoding in context.

Based on a patented instructional technology called Generative Instruction, Headsprout's product delivers adaptive, one-on-one reading instruction through a series of highly interactive activities. The program has thousands of sub-routines that adapt to each child's performance. The company spent more than four years in a major R&D project to build the beginning reading program, using scientifically derived learning principles based on both basic and applied learning sciences.

The product - which is sold to both the school and home market - has been designed with the "typical" learner in mind. However, it has been used by some schools and parents for students with special needs or reading delays. The program has been on the market for about two years.

A tutorial is used to teach students all of the mouse movements and basic activities they will need to use the Headsprout program. Each student works independently and can generally do the lessons on his or her own. The setup: students to do the lessons three to five times a week completing the animated, online episodes. At three to five lessons per week, a student can complete the program in about 12 weeks. The instructional design of Headsprout is such that the skills and strategies of reading are broken down into component parts - small achievable steps.

Lessons are highly interactive and engaging. They start with easier skills that increase in difficulty and build on each other through guided practice, repetition, and cumulative review, according to a description of Headsprout by the Florida Center for Reading Research.

A key aspect of the program is the ability to adapt to each student's pace, using the technology to allow the program to respond to that student's pattern of errors. This framework uses varied levels of corrective techniques with students, each progressively more supportive, so that a student doesn't move on to the step until gaining mastery of that portion of the episode.

Headsprout contains automated assessment and performance reports, which are available from any Internet-connected computer. The reports may be obtained on the student, class, school, or district level. Additional support materials also include: printed stories that are ready to read as students move through the program; teacher's guide; and instructional scope and sequence.

The company has been developing what it calls "wraparound" support through a customer-service number. This client support is necessary to address issues such as how to implement the program in a computer-lab setting versus a classroom setting.

Headsprout is sold to both the school and home markets. For the home, the first 40 lessons can be purchased for 5 payments of $19.95, or a one-shot payment of $99. Purchase of all 80 lessons is $179. For schools, there are discounts available, and the final price depends on a number of factors, such as number of students and amount of printed materials ordered. Generally speaking, the cost comes out to $50 to $100 per student for all 80 episodes.

Headsprout offers a money-back guarantee. The company guarantees that every kindergarten or first grade student who completes its program will be reading at grade level, and it refunds the cost for any student who completes it and is not reading at grade level.

Waterford Early Reading Program was one of the first in the market with technology-driven, research-based early reading instruction. It's a software-based, supplemental curriculum designed to help children read through state-of-the-art technology. As a supplemental program, it correlates with national standards and with well known, key core early reading programs in the country. Based on more than 10 years of research, it was developed by the nonprofit Waterford Institute and first launched in 1995 (Level 1, followed by Levels 2 and 3 in the subsequent three years). Pearson Digital Learning is the published and exclusive distributor.

The program delivers systematic instruction in the five components identified to learn to read well: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. It encompasses three levels of full-year early reading instruction for emerging, fluent, and developing readers, targeted to children in kindergarten through grade 3.

It contains some 225 hours of individualized, research-based instruction designed for daily delivery. The program has rich, multimedia delivery that combines animation, game-like components, sound, and music. Waterford's hired animators have included professionals from Pixar and Disney.

More than 4,200 elementary school classrooms, involving approximately 347,000 students nationwide, are using the Waterford Early Reading Program.

The Waterford software program individually tutors each student in daily 15-30 minute instructional periods. The computer program tracks each child's progress so that teachers and administrators can assess progress; adapts to individual abilities; and keeps recordings of oral reading to help teachers guide subsequent instruction based on reading performance. The package has both software instructional lessons and a full complement of off-line materials.

Level 1, usually used in kindergarten or pre-kindergarten, focuses on the emerging literacy foundation and has 45 hours of instruction. Children spend 15 minutes a day at the computer in instruction that develops phonological awareness, letter name and letter sound recognition, and the understanding of print concepts. This prepares students to decode simple words. Recommended off-line activities correlate to the software content, and can be used by teachers in either small groups or the class. Students get Sing A Rhyme Books and Read With Me books to take home in order to practice.

Level 2, typically used in first grade, includes the developing and reinforcing of skills such as blending sounds to read word patterns, recognizing letter sounds, and comprehension. It includes 90 hours of lessons. Children spend 30 minutes a day at the computer, and take part in activities that reinforce the concepts. Similar to Level 1, children get tales and books to take home.

Level 3, usually used in second grade, takes children from beginning to fluent readers. It builds the continuing reading foundation, including learning more complex word patterns, developing fluency, and practicing spelling and writing skills. It also includes 90 hours of software instruction. Like the other levels, this segment has a strong vocabulary component; Level 3's interactive books let students click on vocabulary words in the text to hear the words pronounced and defined. Again, each student participates in about 30 hours of computerized instruction per day. Children receive copies of 84 books to take home - 30 decodable books that are designed to reinforce independent reading and 54 Read-Along books.

Immediate feedback, continual assessment, and error correction are part of the program at each level.

The Waterford Early Reading program contains teacher's guides for every level that offer off-line teacher-led activities. These activities and tools can be used in either small or large groups.

The program has a strong "family literacy" home-school component in it. There's a full take-home library of books, booklets, videotapes, and audiocassettes to extend learning in the home.

Support: Once purchased from Pearson Digital, schools have on-site training in the program, accessibility to the program Web site, and telephone support.

This product is stand-alone computer software.

Waterford Early Reading is sold on a computer-license basis, typically a number of computers per class or per lab, or a classroom license. The cost depends on many variables, e.g., number of computers, etc.

Fast ForWord offers a complement of software products aimed at developing language and listening skills that form the foundation of reading and build the critical skills for becoming fluent readers. (The company offers software in other subjects as well.) The computer-based interactive exercises use a patented technology and adapt to each child's performance level. The software is targeted to students who are struggling and experiencing deficiencies in certain areas, or are being used for students at grade level and above to accelerate their progress.

These products grew out of approximately 30 years of research in neuroscience, language, and reading, specifically how the brain learns to think, listen and read. In essence, the exercises, when done, retrain the brain and get at the root of the learning behaviors that enable learning, such as processing information, processing speed, and working memory.

With Scientific Learning, schools and clinical professionals can choose from an array of programs, which include training systems, a program tracker, tutorials, and information on how the brain works.

The suite of software products that address literacy and early reading include: Fast ForWord Language, Fast ForWord Language to Reading, and Fast ForWord to Reading Series 1-4. Fast ForWard Language is a set of focused exercises to develop oral language comprehension and listening skills. It's intended for pre-reading children, and other children who need to develop the basic building blocks for learning to read. Fast ForWord Language to Reading targets the skills that help children make the link between the spoken and the written word.

Fast ForWord to Reading Series 1-4 develops the cognitive skills of memory, attention, processing, and sequencing that will help children become proficient readers. The target of this software: primarily students who need to gain the skills to meet expectations of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade reading.

The Fast ForWord software is most often used with students who are experiencing difficulties with phonological awareness, listening comprehension, reading and spelling, understanding concepts, decoding words, and age-appropriate general language ability.

The products are currently being used in 2,500 schools and in 2,100 clinical settings. Scientific Learning was founded in 1996 and launched the first Fast ForWord product in 1997 after an extensive trial with 500 children in 35 sites.

Students at computers listen through headphones and use a computer mouse as they interact with the Fast ForWord language and reading exercises. With each click, the videogame exercises adapt to the individual child's progress and provide targeted training. The exercises, which are coupled with rich classroom curriculum, are done on a daily basis.

Students can follow one of three regimens: 50 minutes a day, five days a week, for 8-12 weeks of time; 75 minutes a day, five days a week, for 6-10 weeks; or 100 minutes a day, five days a week, for 4-8 weeks.

Student performance can be monitored on a consistent basis with Fast ForWord Progress Tracker, an Internet-based monitoring tool that is linked directly with Scientific Learning. This tool displays information on the progress of students individually or the data can be aggregated at the larger group level.

Scientific Learning has correlated its software to state standards on a state-by-state basis.

Fast ForWord is a suite of software products.

Scientific Learning's software is sold primarily through site licenses, to schools or to clinical professionals. There are site licenses sold only at the site for one year, or perpetual licenses that can be used from year to year. There is a subscription model sold per workstation per year.

Available for each site license are a number of resources, including professional development as well as ongoing training and support. The product support ranges from on-site help to phone and online support.