Fifth Largest School District in America Adopts Reading Horizons
North Salt Lake, UT (PRWEB) August 01, 2014 -- What began as a one-off implementation of Reading Horizons Elevate™ at a high school in Clark County, Nevada, has grown to district-wide adoption of the results-driven reading program. This coming school year, Clark County School District will implement Reading Horizons Elevate™ in 117 middle and high schools, joining other large districts in the country that have chosen the program for English Language Learners (ELLs) 4th grade and older.
To make sure its students are receiving the most effective reading instruction possible, Clark County School District is also increasing teacher training. Twenty-eight district ELL administrators have already received two days of training in the Reading Horizons method—the initial step for becoming Certified Reading Horizons trainers. In the next few months, those administrators will continue on the path to certification by attending and participating in a five-day Trainer Certification Workshop, in which they will be taught the method in-depth and observed instructing skills. After the workshop, they will need to teach the program a set number of hours and successfully complete a Teacher Certification Exam. The district’s ultimate goal is to have this certified team train all of the ELL teachers in all 117 schools.
Charity agencies and multicultural centers in the county pioneered use of Reading Horizons Elevate™ to help adults learn to read. Success stories spread by word of mouth across the state, leading other educators to consider the program for their own schools. In 2010, various ABE and ELL directors from Nevada community colleges began using Reading Horizons Elevate™ with their students. Today, the program is in use at all Nevada community colleges. In 2011, Clark County Library System began a Reading Horizons pilot in its CALL program to help non-native and struggling adult students. After the pilot, the library system purchased licenses and direct instruction materials. Most recently, a Reading Horizons Elevate™ site license was granted to a large junior/senior high school in Elko County, and the program is also being adopted in August for middle school students in Churchill County.
Reading Horizons Elevate™ offers direct instruction materials and software that can be combined or used independently, which gives schools the flexibility to customize implementation.
About Reading Horizons:
Founded in 1984, Reading Horizons provides teacher training, teacher’s manuals, and interactive software that empower teachers to effectively teach beginning readers, struggling readers, and English Language Learners. By learning the core of the Reading Horizons framework (The 42 Sounds of the Alphabet, Five Phonetic Skills, and Two Decoding Skills), students have all of the skills they need to read the vast majority of words in the English language. The Reading Horizons program is currently offered in over 10,000 schools across the country. Follow Reading Horizons at http://www.readinghorizons.com.
Angela Stevens, Reading Horizons, http://www.readinghorizons.com, +1 (800) 333-0054 Ext: 131, [email protected]
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