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Success Story: Kelly High School, Chicago, IL

As the reading specialist at Chicago's Kelly High School, Wendy Fischer knows first hand the challenges faced by struggling readers. Fischer and her colleagues have discovered a solution that not only helps students overcome those challenges, but also inspires them to pursue greater academic success.

Kelly High School in Chicago, Illinois is not unlike other high schools in the United States; it has its share of students who find reading difficult, and who often find the effort to learn disheartening.

Recognizing the value of adopting a reading intervention program, teachers at the school thought about what would ensure such a program's success. It had to have a proven record of achieving results, that was a given, but equally important was the requirement that the program engage students and motivate them to learn more. The Academy of READING software program met their criteria head on.

"We had a group of special education students visit our reading lab to work with the Academy of READING three times a week," says Wendy Fischer. "They were very proud of the certificates they received when they completed a level of training successfully, achievements that really gave them their first sense of accomplishment that school year." Providing a valuable tool for targeting struggling readers, the Academy of READING software program allows Fischer and her fellow teachers to assess students' initial reading levels and tailor their remedial programs accordingly. The special education students who used the program subsequently achieved higher scores on tests administered through the Academy of READING, and on state wide reading tests.

"After training with the software program's letter recognition and phonemic awareness drills, students began to demonstrate increased fluency and stronger word recognition in their classroom reading," reports Fischer. "And, importantly, I noticed an improvement in students' attitudes as well – not only toward reading, but toward their studies in general."