Education Trends | Gemm Learning Blog

Archive for the ‘Education Trends’ Category

1.5 years of reading gain in 25-39 days!

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Fast ForWord and ELL (English Language Learners)

In its first semester with the Fast ForWord program, the School City of East Chicago is experiencing positive results. While Fast ForWord is mainly used in schools, Gemm Learning has a licence for home use.

There are 43 languages spoken in this district making it a great opportunity for Fast ForWord to demonstrate one of its strongest applications, helping English Language Learners, children that either were born hearing a language other than English or who speak another language at home.

“We’re seeing average gains of 1.5 grade levels in reading in only 25 to 39 days of use, depending on the school,” said Superintendent Michael Harding. “We have one student who increased five grade levels in 44 days. That’s unheard of! We’ve also had tremendous gains for special needs and ELL students in this short period of time.”

Gemm Learning has had consistent success with Fast ForWord for ELL students. In these cases Fast ForWord is an immersion agent, giving a student an intense dose of the sounds of English in a short period of time, helping their brains map English for reading. In most cases we are dealing with otherwise healthy learners, just underexposed to English in the critical first three years of life. Hence the dramatic outcomes.

Tags: english language learner help, english language learners fast forwrod, english second language, fast forward for english sounds, fast forword east chicago, fast forword ell, fast forword for english
Posted in Education Trends, Learning Science | No Comments »

Nevada DOE Calls Fast ForWord “High Gain”

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Here is a quick clip about the two-year study.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWc4fbhUss

A 2010 Interim Report completed by the Colorado-based Leadership and Learning Center and sponsored by the Nevada Department of Education concluded that the Fast ForWord program increased student reading achievement by an average of 22.2 percentage points. Fast ForWord products were named a “High-Gain Program”.

Fast ForWord software was rated highest out of 22 progams reading programs tested. This is a very strong finding as typically the most dramatic gains for Fast ForWord come in the year or so after program completion — as a cognitive program, it’s main goal is create a better foundation upon which reading skills can be built. So the comparison that was made pre and post test did not mesh with the timeframe where Fast ForWord students typically see the best gains.

It was interesting to note that Earobics did very poorly in this test. Earobics is a simple, shrink-wrapped software that holds itself out to be a much cheaper alternative to Fast ForWord. While Fast ForWord showed the highest gain, Earobics came in with “no gain” and ranked bottom with 3-4 other programs.

For more information, please see: Nevada Department of Education: Fast ForWord is a “High-Gain Program” http://www.scilearn.com/alldocs/cp/research/NevadaDOEBriefing.pdf

Tags: earobics, earobics and fast forward, fast forward, fast forward reading program, fast forword, fast forword and earobics, fast forword reading program, nevada boe study fast forword, reading program, reading software
Posted in Education Trends, Learning Science | No Comments »

Answer to Reading Slide Over Summer

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Study Provides One Simple Answer

Just right books!

A recent NY Times article — in the Science section — covers a three year study that provides discounted books at Spring Book Fairs to low income families intended for summer reading. The idea is to provide a wide variety of freely available books so that parents are first, able to select books that are of interest to them, and second, willing to let their kids read about Hannah Montana if they want to rather than wade through Dickens!

Of course, this idea of “just right” books is not new. For early elementary age readers it is standard fare. And one very successful school reading program, Accelerated Reader, is built around this notion. But by late elementary stage this concept gets lost for a couple of reasons:

It is not well understood that reading comprehension is best learned by reading age and interest appropriate material. Reading comprehension is what makes reading fun, but learning to think and read takes some effort at first. And so having material where the content is of interest makes a real difference.
Most parents do not know their child’s reading level and books do not come with a reading level label. So matching up is requires research. The reasons schools don’t share reading levels with parents depend on who you ask. The school will say “reading level” is a vague concept and so it is misleading to quantify it year to year so they use scales and other measures unrelated to age or grade. On the other hand, the cynic in me says it is to avoid accountability. If a teacher tells a parent that their 4th grader ended the year making less than a year’s progress then they are likely to have their methods questioned.

Gemm Learning is a big believer in just right reading. And there are free tools out there to help make sure your child is reading the right books. Here’s the link to our website: Summer Reading Help

Here is a link to the New York Times article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/summer-must-read-for-kids-any-book/#comment-554422

Tags: gemm learning, just right books, reading comprehension, reading comprehension help, reading help, summer reading, summer reading slide, thinking and reading
Posted in Education Trends, Reading and Dyslexia | No Comments »

BrainWare Safari makes leap forward

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

District Makes Program Standard

As a provider of BrainWare Safari, we were heartened to read about a Michigan school district that after two short years of testing decided to have all students from 3rd grade through high school senior take the program. Their average cognitive ability gain of 3-4 years matched the national average for this exciting new program.

Here is a summary of the article.

The Huron Daily Tribune published a story (July 13,2010) on the Harbor Beach School District in the thumb of Michigan. It all started with a pilot of BrainWare Safari, the cognitive development software program, two years ago. This year every student in the district used the program, from third grade through seniors in high school.

In the pilot in 2008, every student who used the program improved his or her cognitive ability, with an average improvement of 3 to 4 years after using the program for just 12 weeks. Students have experienced dramatic improvements in attention skills, memory, pattern recognition, processing multi-step directions and other mental processes that enable them to learn more effectively.

How does that translate into academics? Teachers started to see students paying better attention in class, being more engaged in their work and even behaving better. And learning and test results started to improve as well. One high school student saw a jump of 7 points on her ACT score and became class valedictorian.

The story is a textbook case of how a school district can evaluate and implement new technology. They put the program through its paces, were clear about the expected outcomes and measured them. And, of course, the first step was that they were willing to try something new. As Harbor Beach Superintendent Ron Kraft expresses it, “We’re not afraid to step out on a limb.”

Tags: brainware at school, brainware safari, brainware safari success, gemm brainware safari, michigan school brainware, neuroscience software
Posted in Education Trends | No Comments »

Bribing Kids To Learn Works: New Study

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Reward Based on Process, Not Results

Time Magazine’s April 8th cover story details findings of a Harvard study utilizing uBoost’s rewards platform in K-8 schools in NYC, Washington DC and Chicago. It was no surprise that the researchers found that rewarding behaviors that lead to learning gains was much more impactful than simply rewarding the desired outcome.

In other words, recognition of daily incremental achievement leads to far greater gains than paying a student for final grades.

Relevant recognition of positive behaviors such as compliance and effort (on the way to good outcomes) has always been a hallmark of Gemm Learning programs. Learn more.

Education Secretary Duncan was a big supporter of this study when he was the Chicago Superintendent. As evidenced by Race To The Top and the Teacher Incentive Fund, the current administration believes that schools, teachers and students will succeed more frequently in an atmosphere of reward rather than punishment.

Here is the article link:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1978589,00.html

Tags: gemm city, gemm learning, gemmcity, home learning program, time magazine learning bribe, uboost
Posted in Education Trends | No Comments »

Reading in the Brain by Dstanislas Ehaene

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

This new book by cognitive scientist, STANISLAS DEHAENE, is attracting a lot of attention. Called ‘Reading in the Brain – The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention,’ it explains the phenomenon of literacy and its effects on the mind.

A Barnes and Noble essay on the book gives a good intro:

How do we go from sounding out syllables, carefully parsing the phonetics of each word, to becoming fluent readers? And how does this incredibly complicated act become automatic, so that evn ths sntnce cn b quikly undrstd?

All very interesting. We were also struck by the early question in hte book: why does phonics work while the whole-language method does not? Ane even more telling, with all the evidence that whole-language does not work, why is it still in so many schools? It points to how little impact science is yet to have on educational practices in the US.

Here’s a link to the review:

Reading in the Brain book review

Tags: DSTANISLAS EHAENE, neuroscience, phonics, reading in the brain, whole language
Posted in Education Trends, Learning Science | Comments Off

What Should Your 12 Year Old Know?

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

What Is Elementary Education Becoming?

There was a great Op Ed piece in last weekend’s New York Times about how elemnetary education has gotten away from giving kids the reading and writing tools they need.

Here’s two excerpts:

“What children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school, but rather develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.”

“Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.”

This is in part what drove me to start Gemm Learning. I could see that the earlier focus on content — in part driven by testing standards — is squeezing out what should be the overwhelming priority, namely building the machine, learning productivity. Fast ForWord and our other programs build these essential skills.

Here’s a link to the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/opinion/02engel.html?ref=opinion

Tags: elementary education, fast forword, learning skills, reading comprehension
Posted in Education Trends | No Comments »

Does Homework Help?

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Did you catch the Canadian court decision late last year to allow two parents to exempt their children from homework?

Apparently their children resisted homework every night and so the parents decided to check out studies to see if there was any evidence to support the asssertion that the homework battles were worth it. Here’s an excerpt from the UK Guardian article:

Two years ago, Shelli began collecting studies on homework, most of which suggest that, particularly for younger grades, there is no clear link between work at home and school performance. Working with the staff at St Brigid Elementary Junior High School, she formed a homework committee. When no firm changes resulted from the committee, the couple began negotiating the legal document that decided the matter.

“We think it’s a parent’s right to choose what’s in our children’s best interests,” said Shelli. “But we’re thankful the school did the right thing.”

The fact they found no supporting articles for homework I think points to one of the difficulties with studies involving education. Due to the wide range of factors in play at any one time over a large student population, hard and fast conclusions are hard to make.

In way this is why the fMRI studies we have talked about in the past are so exciting. Loooking inside the head to see if a program is effective is far more conclusive that trying to observe before and after behaviors.

Link to UK Guardian article

Tags: fMRI, homework effectiveness, homework help
Posted in Education Trends | No Comments »

Financial Burden of Autism

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

There was an interesting article in the NY Times, January 23 talking about possible financial help for autism. It quotes a study by the Harvard School of Public Health that estimates families are spending $67-72,000 a year in direct medical and non-medical expenses related to autism.

The article highlights that (1) a growing public recognition of this financial burden, plus (2) a growing prevalence of autism, especially in boys — now 1 in 70 births — is leading to more funding support. States are mandating coverage, Medicaid programs in some states are not setting income maximums for autism coverage, some insurance companies are adding more coverage and many local organizations are helping out.

It’s a great article. You can read it here:

Dealing With the Financial Burden of Autism

Tags: autism, autism funding, autism help, harvard school study autism
Posted in Education Trends, Learning Issues | No Comments »

Australia Approves Fast ForWord For Autism

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Here’s an interesting trend. The Australian government has agreed to pay for parents to use Fast ForWord software as an early intervention for autism.

We wrote recently about processing delays being used at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a biomarker for autism. This points to a growing belief that processing difficulties, targeted directly by Fast ForWord, are a core issue for most children diagnosed with ASDs.

Which in turn explains the growing use of Fast ForWord for autism. Its adaptive algorythms are ideal for this population as it allows the sofwtare to engage but not frustrate. This makes it accessible to most autistic children.

Here is the press release:

OAKLAND, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Scientific Learning Corp today announced that the Australian Government’s Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs has named the Fast ForWord® family of products as an approved intervention for children under age six who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).

Designed to accelerate learning by developing the student brain to process more efficiently, the Fast ForWord educational software consists of scientifically proven, intervention programs that apply neuroscience principles to build the fundamental cognitive skills required to read and learn. The strengthening of these skills results in a wide range of improved critical language and reading abilities, such as phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, decoding, working memory, syntax and grammar.

In Australia, the Fast ForWord program is available to eligible children under the Helping Children with Autism funding package. Through this package, the Australian Government is working to address the need for support and services for children with ASDs. As part of the package, the government offers funding for early intervention services for children ages zero to seven who are diagnosed with an ASD.

Our partners in Australia, LearnFast, have been identified as a primary provider for this population.

Tags: asd, autism fast forward, autism fast forword, fast forword asd, processing autism. fast forword processing
Posted in Education Trends, Learning Issues | No Comments »