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A $9.99 million Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant is bringing together three partners to tackle one of education’s most persistent challenges: helping young readers build the skills they need to succeed, especially in rural communities where specialized support is hardest to access. I had a chance to chat with two of the program’s architects about their efforts, Allison Zimmermann, CEO of Foundations in Learning, and Dr. Seth King, Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Iowa.
WordFlight, developed by Foundations in Learning, has partnered with the University of Iowa Reading Research Center and Wyoming State to conduct a five-year study involving 80 to 100 schools. The project builds on previous success—a randomized controlled trial with middle school students that showed the intervention was “extremely successful” in moving students forward on foundational skills and fluency.
The study uses a wait-listed design in which half the schools implement WordFlight in year one while the other half serves as a control group, with all schools receiving the intervention by year two. Independent evaluators from Iowa’s Center for Evaluation and Assessment will measure outcomes using assessments not directly aligned with the curriculum.
“We have to stop the bleeding,” Allie emphasizes about older struggling readers. “We have to give them the foundation that they need to be successful.”