San Jose USD Implements New Reading Software

• By Kanoe Namahoe
• 08/23/12

Elementary school students in San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) will be boosting their reading skills when they head back to school this fall.

Administrators at the northern California school district are implementing Lexia Reading to improve student reading skills, following a recent pilot program. The goal, said Assistant Superintendent Jason Willis, is to individualize instruction and identify struggling learners.

"One of our district’s key strategies to accomplish our mission is to individualize learning," said Willis in a prepared statement from Lexia, "to help students accelerate learning and close the opportunity gap."

Lexia's reading software, created in accordance with Common Core State Standards, includes age-specific activities designed to build specific literacy skills. Students advance through the program as they master these skills.

The program also includes assessment tools, which provide teachers with real-time data on student performance and identifies those individuals that need additional help. Teachers and reading specialists get direction and lesson plans for assisting those learners, including the number of minutes per week that those students will need to spend with the software in order to bring their performance to grade level. The software tracks each student's progress through the program and uses this data to determine whether or not the student will reach the desired end-of-year benchmark.

More information about Lexia Reading is available at the company's Web site.