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Success Story: Kathleen High School, Lakeland, FL

When students' reading levels deteriorated to alarming lows, educators at Kathleen High School in Lakeland, Florida knew they had to introduce a reading intervention program. The first one they tried produced lackluster results, but the next yielded great success, the Academy of READING software program.

Sharon Burress was one of many educators at Kathleen High School to realize that levels of student achievement were slowly but steadily declining. "It seemed that even our honors students could no longer do what former honors students could," says Burress.

What finally persuaded the school to take action was the FCAT (Florida Comprehension Assessment Test). Previously, Kathleen High had administered the HSCT (High School Competency Test) and, with hard work and concentrated effort, students had managed to achieve adequate scores. "But the reading levels on the FCAT were way over the heads of our students," says Burress. "We were having far too many students fail."

Kathleen High School's principal bought a highly recommended and costly reading software program. "I used that course for a year," Burress says. "The students had to be prodded and coaxed to use it and complained constantly. Worse, they found many ways around the proper use of it."

Naturally, Burress was skeptical when the school district held a demonstration of the Academy of READING software program from AutoSkill. That changed quickly. "Ten minutes into the demonstration," she says, "I could see that this program had everything we needed. I wanted it very much."

In September 1999, 55 ninth-graders were enrolled for half a year in Academy of READING classes. Students were selected according to their scores on the CTBS (California Test of Basic Skills) and their marks from middle school. The program was implemented on 22 PCs in a lab that Burress booked for 40 minutes per period.

Burress recalls one student who initially tested at a reading grade level of zero. By his first report card after using the Academy of READING, "he was on the 'All A, B' Honor Roll!" And by December, she says, he was reading at the fifth grade level, right where most of his peers were.

Since adopting the Academy of READING software program, Kathleen High School has expanded it to include students in other grade levels, some of whom had also been involved in the school's previous reading program.

"They all prefer the Academy of READING," says Burress. "One girl told me she was so surprised that she was reading and enjoying a whole section of the newspaper. Several others who had never read a novel are now finishing one." She adds, "The thrill of teaching has returned. I have found a way I can make a tremendous difference in more students' lives, and I have this software program to thank for it. I wish that every struggling reader everywhere had one year on this program; they would struggle no more."