Boston, March 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Like many schools throughout the country, California Elementary School, in Orange Unified School District (USD), faces a significant challenge helping students reach grade-level proficiency in reading. With a student population comprised of 90 percent English Language Learners and 94 percent receiving free or reduced price lunch, many students begin the year two or more years below grade level. To address this challenge, California Elementary School implemented Lexia Reading® Core5® blended learning program as part of a rigorous pilot program in the spring of 2015, which yielded dramatic and statistically significant results.
“We chose to pilot Lexia Reading Core5 because Lexia has an incredible reputation locally, based on several nearby districts using the program with great success,” said Dr. John Albert, principal of California Elementary School. “The published efficacy data correlating gains in Lexia with outside measures was critically important to me and gave me great confidence that if we used Lexia Reading Core5 with fidelity, we would see excellent results and increase learning for our students.”
Under Dr. Albert’s leadership, California Elementary School sought to determine the benefits of a blended learning approach to reading instruction, and to examine the relationship between use of Lexia Reading Core5 and gains on DIBELS Next, a commonly used reading assessment.
The pilot program entailed the use of Lexia Reading Core5 in conjunction with the school’s existing curriculum for English Language Arts, Houghton Mifflin Reading (Medallion Edition). Second-grade classrooms were randomly assigned as intervention (Core5) and control (non-Core5) groups. There were 49 Core5 students and 25 non-Core5 students. All students received the same amount of overall reading instruction and intervention time (120 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively). Using Lexia Reading Core5, students completed activities focusing on the five main areas of reading instruction, developing skills such as initial/final consonants discrimination, silent-e word construction, categorizing, idioms, and reading comprehension. Students worked independently in the online program, and teachers used real-time reports and instructional materials to provide face-to-face intervention and address skill gaps as they emerged.
“It was important to us that the solution we chose integrate great teacher-led instruction along with the activities occurring in the online program,” Dr. Albert continued. “I’ve found that other online instructional programs can tell the teacher which students may be struggling, however, many teachers need help with knowing what to do about that gap. That’s where Lexia really steps in. When a student begins to struggle, the program immediately provides diagnostic data and a lesson plan the teacher can use to support instruction the next day. For our master teachers, these lessons are a fantastic launching point for instruction; and for our less experienced teachers, these lessons provide a rigorous, structured approach ensuring that we have a minimum baseline of quality instruction—which is key for me as a principal.”
Some of the key factors for the implementation included scheduling time specifically for focusing on Lexia data reports during team planning sessions, which ensures that children do not fall through the cracks. Additionally, Dr. Albert and his “Mind the Gap” progress monitoring team met on a weekly basis to review the Lexia data reports and see which students had been identified as needing instruction, and double checked with the teacher to ensure that he/she had reviewed the report and accessed specific instructional materials for that student. Following that interaction, Dr. Albert and his team continued to monitor the data for that student to determine the impact of instruction. In addition, classroom teachers helped students to self-monitor their progress towards year-end-benchmarks.
“We have classroom charts where students can track their progress towards goals,” said Miranda Bauman, Resource Teacher at California Elementary School. “The students are so happy when they ‘level-up’ and get to explore another new part of the world within the program theme. This helps keep the students engaged and motivates them to achieve the small goals, as well as the big goals.”
Results from the teachers’ and students’ efforts in the Lexia Reading Core5 pilot were dramatic. At the start of the pilot program, only 16% of the second grade students were working on grade-level skills in Lexia Reading Core5. By May—after only 16 weeks of using Lexia Reading Core5—69% were working on grade-level skills or had reached benchmark. In addition, students using Lexia Reading Core5 had significantly higher average percent growth on DIBELS Next with 25% growth compared to 6% growth for the non-Core5 students.
The study also examined the correlation between reaching end-of-year benchmark within Lexia Reading Core5 and DIBELS Next. The correlation was statistically significant and in the medium range (r=0.6), indicating that reaching benchmark in Lexia Reading Core5 is closely associated with performance on DIBELS Next. Furthermore, 100 percent of the students who reached end-of-year benchmark in Lexia Reading Core5 were also classified in the highest instructional category level on DIBELS Next, indicating that reaching benchmark in Lexia Reading Core5 is a valid indicator of reading ability.
Dr. Albert concluded, “Lexia Reading Core5 is the perfect blended learning tool to maximize the effectiveness of our teachers as well as meeting the needs of students who need intervention or enrichment. Our teachers and students love it because it is easy to implement and gets results.”
A research presentation regarding the California Elementary School pilot program will be shared at the upcoming Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) EdMedia conference in Vancouver, B.C., being held June 27-30, 2016.
For more information about Lexia Reading Core5, visit www.lexialearning.com or call 1-800-435-3942.
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About Lexia Learning
Lexia Learning, a division of Rosetta Stone, empowers educators through adaptive assessment and personalized instruction. For more than 30 years, the company has been on the leading edge of research and product development as it relates to student reading skills. With a robust offering that includes solutions for differentiated instruction, personalized learning and assessment, Lexia Learning provides educators with the tools to intensify and accelerate literacy skills development for students of all abilities. For more information, visit lexialearning.com.
About Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone Inc. (NYSE: RST) is dedicated to changing people’s lives through the power of language and literacy education. The company’s innovative, personalized language and reading programs drive positive learning outcomes in thousands of schools, businesses, government organizations and for millions of individual learners around the world.
Founded in 1992, Rosetta Stone pioneered the use of interactive software to accelerate language learning and is widely recognized today as the industry leader in providing effective language programs. The company’s cloud-based programs allow users to learn online or on-the-go via tablet or smartphone, whether in a classroom, in a corporate setting, or in a personal learning environment. Rosetta Stone is also a leader in the literacy education space, helping millions of students build fundamental reading skills through its Lexia Learning division. Additionally, the company's Fit Brains business offers personalized brain training programs developed by neuroscientists and award-winning game designers to be fun and help keep your brain sharp.
Rosetta Stone is based in Arlington, VA, and has offices and operations around the world. For more information, visit www.rosettastone.com. “Rosetta Stone” is a registered trademark or trademark of Rosetta Stone Ltd. in the United States and other countries.