The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has renewed its statewide license on the assistive software Read:OutLoud 6, which reads digital books aloud for students with print disabilities. Developed by Don Johnston Inc. and licensed through George Mason University's Accessible Instructional Materials Center (AIM-VA), the software helps approximately 170,000 students in 1,900 Virginia public schools.
"Children who enter grade school with cognitive and social-emotional delays are at an increased risk for reading problems, academic underachievement, and becoming disengaged or disinterested in school." This assessment, from Janet Welsh, a research associate at Penn State University's Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development, is at the heart of a new intervention program developed by researchers at the school to help families with kindergarteners at risk for poor school performance.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 03/04/10
Stanislaus Union School District in Stanislaus, CA, reported that it implement Vantage Learning's MY Access! writing software for the 5th and 6th grades in all of its five elementary schools. The program is being funded through the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/26/10
For teachers in the Thunder Bay Catholic School District, it's not a question of if they will get the chance to teach an autistic or "high-needs" student. It's a matter of when it will happen. "Within the last five years we've charted an alarming rate of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) entering the school system," said Joel Godecki, ASD project director for the 8,000-student Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board in Northwestern Ontario.
- By Bridget McCrea
- 02/25/10
The Texas Education Agency has chosen Carnegie Learning to provide supplemental math instruction to middle school students in the state. The agreement will impact more than 3,000 Texas students in grades 5 through 8 who are at risk for not meeting end-of-course standards in Algebra I.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/17/10
When reading issues began surfacing within its elementary student population in the mid-1990s, Liberty Public Schools developed an internal tutoring program to help boost those students' scores on statewide reading tests.
- By Bridget McCrea
- 02/04/10
Australia's Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs has approved the Fast ForWord products from Scientific Learning as an educational intervention tool for working with autistic children younger than 6.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/03/10
Pam Howard is no stranger to technology-based reading programs. In fact, this principal believes in such applications so much that she brings them with her when she takes on positions at new schools. For example, when she accepted the position of principal at Burleson Elementary in El Paso, TX, in 2008, Howard knew it wouldn't be long before a high number of the school's 337 students would be shifting to a technology-based reading program she'd previously used at three different schools.
- By Bridget McCrea
- 01/28/10
Tool Factory has introduced a new educational software application designed to help visual learners and English language learners (ELL) not only learn their words but understand their practical use and context. A Busy Day uses graphics and interactive scenes so that users can relate the words they say and read to objects, descriptions, and actions.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 01/26/10
Capital Area Intermediate Unit (CAIU), a nonprofit regional educational service agency in south central Pennsylvania, has announced an expansion of their online learning partnership with EdisonLearning.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 01/26/10