NC District Chosen as Fast ForWord Reference

Scientific Learning Corp. has chosen the Anson County (NC) School District as a national reference site for its use of the company’s Fast ForWord program.

Anson County was selected for its strong implementation of the Fast ForWord program and significant student gains. During the 2007-08 school year, students with disabilities at Peachland-Polkton Elementary School who used the Fast ForWord software exceeded state performance goals and made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the first time in four years.

Overall, 52.5 percent of students with disabilities scored at or above grade level on the North Carolina End-of-Grade (EOG) Tests in reading, surpassing the state’s goal of 43.2 percent. In addition, students with disabilities outscored their peers in regular education classrooms on the EOG Tests in reading.

The most growth was in grade four where 82.4 percent of students with disabilities performed at or above grade level on the EOG Tests in reading, compared to 48.3 percent of regular education students.

Anson County School District began using the software in fall 2007 in all nine schools to improve reading proficiency among at-risk students and students with disabilities. Fast ForWord is a family of educational software products that accelerate learning by developing the student brain to process more efficiently.