A New Solution for Developmental Reading Programs
Reading Improvement for College Students
Every year, approximately one-third of all college freshmen arrive with reading skills that are insufficient for success with college-level reading material. Read Right tutoring provides the rapid reading improvement these students need.
FOUR YEARS OF DATA
Report to the U.S. Department of Education Documents Effectiveness
In September 2011, the Washington Post reported that SAT scores for high school seniors are the lowest they have been in three decades. This creates a significant problem for colleges and universities: a growing number of incoming college freshmen do not read well enough to support college-level coursework. Read Right quickly and efficiently solves this problem.
Rapid Reading Improvement With Read Right
Dr. Mary Gene Ryan of Midlands Technical College (MTC), Columbia, South Carolina, strongly supports Read Right for rapid reading improvement: “I’ve been in this business a long time. This is the first program that I’ve seen that actually works for students in terms of improving their reading ability.” Notes Dr. Ryan, “It’s a rigorous program and that can be hard at first for some students. But, after just a few weeks, they get used to the rigor and they see the benefits. They see how well it works.”
The following information is summarized from a report compiled independently in April 2012 by Dr. Ryan at the request of the U.S. Department of Education, which funded MTC’s Read Right project in part through Title III funds. Tables and charts provided to the Dept. of Ed. by MTC will soon appear on a national website.
- FALL 2007: Students in a designated MTC developmental program called SOAR were required to participate in the Read Right reading intervention program, whereas other developmental program students were not required to participate. SOAR students on average were documented to gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 11.3 hours of Read Right tutoring (on average, students received 37.6 hours of tutoring and gained 3.3 grade levels in reading ability).
- SPRING 2008: SOAR students gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 8.6 hours of tutoring (24.2 hours/2.83 grade levels).
- Effect on College Retention: For the Fall 2007-Spring 2008 year, 97% of SOAR students remained in college, compared to 62% of students not required to participate in Read Right.
- FALL 2008: SOAR students gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 16.5 hours of tutoring (14.5 hours/0.89 grade levels).
- SPRING 2009: SOAR students gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 8.3 hours of tutoring (19.7 hours/2.37 grade levels).
- Effect on College Retention: For the Fall 2008-Spring 2009 year, 94% of SOAR students remained in college, compared to 70% of students not required to participate in Read Right. With two years of data indicating that developmental reading students required to participate in Read Right were remaining in college at a significantly higher rate, MTC began to require that all development reading students participate in Read Right.
- FALL 2009: All developmental reading students gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 13.3 hours of tutoring (20 hours/1.8 grade levels).
- SPRING 2010: All developmental reading students gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 7.4 hours of tutoring (13.4 hours/1.8 grade levels).
- Effect on College Retention: For the Fall 2009-Spring 2010 year, 95% of SOAR students remained in college, compared to 86% who were not yet required to participate in Read Right.
- FALL 2010 (final quarter for the required data gathering): All developmental reading students gain 1 grade level in reading ability for every 11.1 hours of tutoring (20 hours/1.8 grade levels).
- Effect on College Retention: For the Fall 2020-Spring 2011 year, 100% of SOAR students remain in college, compared to 64% of the few students still not required to participate in Read Right.
Read Right successfully serves struggling readers in
- College Developmental Education Programs
- Adult Basic Education (ABE) and GED programs
- Programs for English Language Learners (ELL)
Effective with
- Special needs students
- English language learners
- Title III students
Read Right is Truly Unique and Innovative
Reading problems are caused when students construct a flawed neural network to guide the process of reading. Influenced by Piaget’s theory of interactive constructivism, the Read Right developmental reading program relies on the plasticity of the brain to remodel the neural circuitry that is operating inappropriately. Even the most challenged students can be quickly transformed from poor readers to successful readers—in a matter of months, not years!
Benefits for the Student
- Quick, significant, and permanent improvement
- Transforms poor readers to successful readers
- Builds positive self-esteem and confidence
- Establishes a solid foundation for academic success
Benefits for the Developmental Education Programs
- Diminishes staff frustration by providing an effective tool to help students succeed
- Provides additional revenue by increased retention of students
Successful Projects Have Been Established in:
- Single campus community colleges
- Multi-campus community colleges
- Colleges serving large Latino populations
- Colleges serving significant African American populations
- Colleges with a high ELL enrollment
