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October 15, 2002
Supporting the Reading First Classroom: Issues and Challenges (cont'd)
New Challenges for Vendors
Though much about how the federal government will legislate the selection process for both technology-based and other types of reading products remains speculation at this stage, some things seem likely. Jay Sivin-Kachala, vice president of Interactive Educational Systems Design, Inc., which offers evaluation services to educational institutions, says we'll need to put some new systems in place. "Districts seeking to purchase reading curriculum materials using state-level Reading First funds will have to develop a selection process that includes examination of the research on each candidate product's effectiveness," he says.
 | | In the past ten years, phonemic awareness has joined social skills and oral language as a key readiness skill. |
As a result, software publishers are feeling the pressure to put together reliable assessment tools and pilot programs to prove to curriculum purchasers that their products really help kids achieve. The Catskill Elementary preschool named earlier is one of three Southern California pilots begun last year by LeapFrog SchoolHouse, maker of the LeapPad and other electronic literacy toys.
For Chomori, whose class at Catskill Elementary comprises the experimental group, the primary challenges have been getting to know and integrate the LeapFrog literacy system into her already-packed curriculum, and also not being able to collaborate with her partner, who heads up the control group in the classroom next door. For LeapFrog, it's involved working with research coordinator Laurel Coco, whose job it is to observe Chomori and five other pilot classrooms on a regular basis and continue to hone the assessment instrument that aims to evaluate the effectiveness of company products.
Other software vendors are also rushing to get on board with pilot programs and curriculum components that address at-risk students, personalized learning, the home-school connection, and further areas specifically named in No Child Left Behind. Riverdeep has added an emergent literacy module to their new Destination Reading program for pre-K-third-graders. Marketing director Christina Panza tells us this unit was designed to address students "who've had virtually no exposure to print." The company is beginning pilot programs on the product in 49 Nevada elementary classrooms, and also has in the works a subscription-based version so parents can monitor their child's progress from home.
In an effort to appeal to kids with difference learning styles, IntelliTools' recently shipping Balanced Literacy for first-graders offers a combination of approaches, including hard-copy books as well as play, experimentation, phonics, and structured tasks on the computer.
Next: Innovation in the Reading Classroom
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