A new study released today at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island by Beyond Basics, a nonprofit literacy organization in Detroit, reveals students who used its program performed better in reading.
Approximately 85 percent of the 3,553 participating students experienced improvements in their grade level reading, according to Beyond Basics, which operates free literacy centers in some Detroit Public Community District Schools and the Durfee Innovation Society next to Central High School.
The results show the solution to achieving literacy starts by administering an individualized diagnostic assessment.
Once students are evaluated, they are placed with tutors who provides sustained teaching using a multisensory, structured literacy approach for the duration of their tutoring plan. Students improved within an average of six weeks.
“Literacy is a silent epidemic,” says Pamela Good, co-founder and CEO of Beyond Basics. “There is not one state in the United States of America that can say that they have more than 49 percent proficiency in reading for their eighth graders.”
Florida-based Dietz Consultants conducted the study, analyzing the scores of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests (WRMT) of the students who completed and graduated from the Beyond Basics program each year.
Since the inception of implementing their structured literacy approach for K-12 students, Beyond Basics states it has proven that reading instruction is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor and that the individual needs of each child must be met to improve their literacy respective scores.
Once literate, students can achieve their educational goals, and become adults who thrive. Those individuals who can’t read, often are headed for a life of trouble, or worse, prison, according to various studies.
“By teaching children to read with our proven program, Beyond Basics breaks the generational cycle of illiteracy,” says Good. “We have proven that there is a solution to eradicate illiteracy.”
To view the full report, visit here.
