For Immediate Release

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions To Visit Sweetwater School

Senator to recognize faculty for achievements with Alabama Reading Initiatives

Sweetwater, AL –August 10, 2005- Alabama Senator, Jeff Sessions will visit Sweetwater School on August 10, 2005 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. During the visit, he will acknowledge faculty achievements made through the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) and the Alabama Reading First Initiative (ARFI) and take part in a roundtable discussion with reading coaches regarding the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001.

ARI is Alabama’s state-wide K-12 initiative designed to improve reading instruction and give teachers the professional development they need to teach in proven and effective ways. ARFI is the state’s K-3 initiative created through NCLB that implements research-based programs in schools to help students reach 100% literacy by the end of third grade.

Since 2002, Sweetwater students in grades K-2 have used the Voyager Universal Literacy System as their core reading program. This year, students in grades K-2, scored well above reading fluency goals and for the second year in a row, ranked third in the state among all Reading First, K-3 schools.

Voyager Expanded Learning is a provider of core, intervention and supplemental reading programs, as well as ongoing professional development for school districts throughout the U.S. The Voyager Universal Literacy System ® and the Voyager Passport ™ Reading Intervention System are the only reading programs patented for their “method and system for preventing illiteracy.”  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. Collaborations with the Discovery Channel and the Smithsonian Institution enable Voyager to provide timely and powerful curricula for the American classroom. Voyager Expanded Learning is a subsidiary of Ann-Arbor based ProQuest Company. For more information, please visit www.voyagerlearning.com.