Growth in word reading ability of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness and Letter Knowledge (Torgesen & Mathes, 2000) Low Average Reading grade level This graph shows the effects on the growth of their “sight word” vocabulary. The chlidren who started with weaknesses in PA and letter knowledge did not grow as fast as the other children in learning to read words accurately. The measure was Word ID from the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test These data suggest that if students do not have the necessary background in phonics, they will always lag behind. 1 2 3 4 5 Grade level corresponding to age

Mastery Charter School: Frederick Douglass 87 students, all of whom were Special Ed or on RTI programs After 6 months of using MaxScholar 100% 100% 16% 16% This suggests that all the students now have the necessary background in phonics to learn to read.