 |
For Immediate Release
Lake Weston's Lowest-Performing Students
Make Biggest Gains on FCAT with Voyager
Universal Literacy System
ORLANDO,FL., February 14, 2006 –After four years of using the Voyager Universal Literacy System®, 96 percent of the lowest performing students at Lake Weston Elementary School in Orlando, FL passed the spring 2005 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), a significant achievement celebrated throughout the school.
Lake Weston first implemented the Voyager Universal Literacy System – a core reading program from Voyager Expanded Learning – with its kindergarten students during the 2001-2002 school year. The school saw such impressive gains in reading comprehension in the first year that school administrators made sure they could locate additional funding to continue the Voyager program as each of these high-risk students continued on to first, second and third grade.
At the close of the 2004-2005 school year, after using the Universal Literacy System for four consecutive years, the 23 students who began the program in kindergarten (now third-graders) showed a 108 percent improvement in the spring 2005 FCAT from the 2004 pass rate, and a 129 percent improvement over the 2002 pass rate.
Lake Weston principal, John Dobbs believes that without the Voyager Universal Literacy System, student pass rates on the FCAT would have been significantly lower. "I truly believe the [Voyager Universal Literacy System] program is working for our children," said Mr. Dobbs.
Lake Weston Elementary School is part of the Orange County Public School System in Florida and serves 689 children in grades K-5 from diverse populations. Ninety percent of Lake Weston's students are eligible for free and reduced lunch and 23 percent have limited language proficiency, making programs like the Voyager Universal Literacy System a critical component of the school's goals to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"The Universal Literacy System was specifically developed to reach critical populations of students before they slip off the track of a successful reading future," said Dr. Jeri Nowakowski, executive vice president of product development, research and marketing at Voyager. "Lake Weston, and especially these students, can be proud that their extra efforts and dedication paid off, yielding impressive and measurable results. We congratulate them for reaching their goal."
About Voyager Expanded Learning
Voyager Expanded Learning provides core, intervention and supplemental reading programs, as well as math intervention and ongoing professional development programs for school districts throughout the United States. Founded in 1994, Voyager has delivered extended-time reading and basic skills intervention programs as well as large-scale reading programs to more than 1,000 school districts in cities such as Dallas, Phoenix, New York, Philadelphia and the District of Columbia, resulting in dramatically improved student performance. Partnership and collaborations with the Discovery Channel enable Voyager to provide timely and powerful curricula for the American classroom. Voyager Expanded Learning, Inc. is a business unit of ProQuest Company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.voyagerlearning.com or call 1-888-399-1995 .
###
Media Contacts:
|
|
|
