Peel Adult Learning Centre

Institution

Peel Adult Learning Centre, Mississauga, Ontario Canada

Scope of Work

Evaluate Reading Horizons software

Tool

Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT)

Evaluation

August 2002 - June 2003

The Peel Learning Centre of Mississauga, Ontario Canada conducted a research evaluation on the Reading Horizons computer courseware from August 2002 – June 2003. The national reading assessment tool used in the evaluation was the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT).

Many students involved in the study represented countries where English was not their primary language. Many had lived in Canada for so many years that they were not considered traditional ESL students. However, their English reading and writing skills lagged. Many students had observable learning disabilities that had never been formally diagnosed.

Twenty-three students participated in the project and were supervised by 4 teachers. Each student worked on the Reading Horizons computer component at least three days a week for approximately forty minutes. Many students, who attended regularly, spent fifty minutes, five days a week, working on the computer lessons.

Data

Evaluator's Observations

"One of the mindsets that we went into this study with, that we later found was incorrect, was the proof of the effectiveness of the program would simply come from the gains made in the post-test. While we were very pleased with the gains made in the post-test, we were most excited about how the program helped our students continue to learn.

Completing this program laid the essential groundwork for tremendous future gains. Because the students had worked through all the skills necessary for decoding words, as the teachers worked with them in the future, the teacher and the students were speaking a common language. The teachers knew how to relate what they were trying to teach the students about spelling or vocabulary words or decoding to concepts that the students were already familiar with from the program.

Because students in adult education arrive with “gaps” in their knowledge, a tremendous amount of time is spent finding those gaps. The Reading Horizons program filled in the gaps that adult learners often have, in a controlled sequential manner and in a way that gives the students a feeling of being successful from the very start. Another by-product of the program is the marked improvement in reading comprehension. As the word attack skills were mastered, fluency automatically improved."