Principal's New 7 Way Reading Program: Fast ForWord & Reading Assistant

I just read an inspiring article by Carole Meyer, a school Principal in Washington State, USA about how her school transformed its reading program.

The problem at Salk Middle School in Spokane, Washington was that 328 of the 736 students were not proficient readers, based on the state’s reading assessment. This was almost half the students.

So in mid 2013 Meyer decided to find a way to get every student reading at or above grade level.

She succeeded.

The students in the new reading program:

Achieved more than a year of reading growth in only one semester
Lifted their pass rate so they were passing more than 90% of their classes
Shifted their mindsets toward becoming better readers

Meyer writes says her students reported other benefits from the new reading program including:

Faster thinking
Able to do difficult tasks more easily
More confidence
Greater feeling of success in classes

The first of her 7 ways to help the school’s struggling readers was to find research-based reading interventions. This lead her to the Fast ForWord & Reading Assistant programs which were introduced together with a blended learning approach.

You can read how Carole Meyer found these researched- based interventions and about the 6 other ways her school transformed reading in her complete article here.