Thanks so much for the great responses to my info request about Scholastic's
Read 180.
There is some interest in our county for implementation of Scholastic's Read
180 program for struggling readers. Scholastic's site provides plenty of
research to show the program works, but I would like to have more info from
those using it. I am interested in opinions from those in the schools where
the program is being used. What are the Pros and Cons as well as issues
that arise after implementation?
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/read180/overview/
Responses:
I don't know if you're an AR school or not, but I've also heard great things
about Renaissance Learning's Read Now With Power Up program. A friend of
mine uses it in her Intervention classes at the middle school level and she
raves about it. There is information on their website--
http://www.renlearn.com/readnowpowerup/
Yahoo has a listserve group on Read 180 that you can join.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/read180/
They say it is terribly expensive.
I thought that I would write to you in response to your request for
information. As you can see from my signature, I work in a Juvenile
Correctional Facility in Ohio. Our entire state-wide Dept. of Youth
Services won a huge grant to use this program in each of our on-site
schools. I spoke with our teacher this morning to get her thoughts on the
program and thought that I would share those with you.
Her feeling was that the program can be a good one. However, with our
population and the nature of our school, it is not always successful. Our
youth tend to blow off the test, thus testing into the program when they are
far more able than it appears. Our teacher's assessment was that the
program moves a little slow and can be a little boring at times. She did
feel that it would work much better with middle school age students than the
high school (and up) age youth that we serve.
We just started our READ 180 program. It is geared towards students who are
self contained. Because our scheduling and our class periods are only 40
minutes, the program (which takes 90 minutes for one class) could not be
used with students who really need it. The self contained students either
like it or not. The corporation keep saying the scores have improved but I
have my reservations about the data.
Personally, I have a problem with the program because of its cost. There
are lots of ways to improve literacy scores without such a high cost on just
one program.
I am an ESL teacher at Wilson Elementary in Coppell, Texas. This year, I
was asked to use it with struggling 4th and 5th graders (all students,
regular ed, special ed, and ESL). I really like the program and saw huge
gains in my students. However, I was disappointed in the smaller gains made
by ESL students and feel that it really is NOT the right program for them
unless they are FES or almost FES. I would be happy to chat with you more
about the program. I have soooooo much to say, but as I'm sure you
understand sooooo little time right now. Please write to me again if you
have any specific questions regarding the program and I will do my best to
share what I have learned.
It is costly and requires a huge infrastructure of network ability. Each
classroom needs computers, portable CD players (if you have the
infrastructure for power outlets, you won't regret it...batteries are always
dying), TV with DVD. These things must be in place before you consider
purchasing a Read 180 set for classrooms. Incidentally, my former school
was billed about $35,000 PER CLASSROOM and they set up 4 news ones. Each
classroom has 10 computers. This is too large a size group (3 groups of 10
students=30 needy readers). The proposal recommends having a classroom
assistant, but that hasn't happened.
On the other hand, even with all of the problems in getting the network
drops and computers installed, the teachers have been pleased with student
progress in Read 180. They needed the direction that Read 180 offers. One
thing I didn't like was not seeing those students in the library to check
out books very often.
>From the archives:
http://www.eduref.org/plweb-cgi/fastweb?getdoc+listservs+LM_NET+416036+1+wAA
A+180
Denise Borck
Media Specialist
William James Middle School
18809 Highway 80 West
Statesboro, GA 30458
912-764-2752
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