The National Center for Education Statistics has found that approximately two-thirds of eighth-grade students in the U.S. cannot read proficiently (https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cnb.pdf), a figure that has held relatively steady for 25 years. To help schools and districts close the achievement gap for nonproficient readers in grades six and above, Lexia Learning has released PowerUp Literacy, designed to simultaneously accelerate the development of both fundamental literacy skills and higher-order thinking skills through adaptive learning paths.
Developed specifically for adolescent students, the program identifies skill gaps and provides personalized and systematic instruction in word study, grammar, and comprehension. By engaging students with a range of relevant, high-interest authentic texts, instructional videos, and game-based motivational elements, the program is intended to help students take ownership of their learning, acknowledging their growing autonomy and building their confidence.
“Schools and districts need to prepare all middle and high school students, including nonproficient readers, for college and careers, so closing the literacy achievement gap in grades 6–12 is often a matter of special concern.
That’s especially true when teachers don’t feel they have the training or tools to support nonproficient readers,” says Lexia president Nick Gaehde. “PowerUp equips teachers with the knowledge, data, and instructional resources they need to support and motivate those readers.”
“With more than 30 years of experience in reading pedagogy and research and several peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the efficacy of our instructional approach, we have always put the needs of teachers and students at the core of what we do,” adds Gaehde. “We want to empower teachers who might otherwise feel unprepared to support nonproficient readers. And we want to meet the needs of a wide range of students—whether they are struggling or nearly proficient readers—through a highly engaging and personalized instruction experience that we believe will effectively address the decades-long gap in reading proficiency across our country.”
See Language Magazine October 2017 for an interview with Nick Gaehde and Liz Brooke of Lexia.