Scholastic Reports $50 Million in Sales of READ 180® Next Generation Since Launch in May

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic Education announced today that it has sold more than $50 million of READ 180® Next Generation since the company released the newest version of the premier reading intervention program in May. The latest upgrade to READ 180 is the result of five years of research and development and includes new technology, instruction and content to help make teachers more effective and students more engaged, and state-of the art supports for the Common Core State Standards.

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Already, nearly 20% of all school districts using READ 180 have upgraded to "Next Generation" and will begin using it as they go back to school this fall. Some of those districts include the Clark County (Las Vegas) School District, the Phoenix Union High School District, and the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.

Based upon research by Dr. Ted Hasselbring of the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University, READ 180 first launched in 1999 and, now 12 years later, serves more than one million students every day in schools across the country. More than 40 independent researchers have validated the program's effectiveness over the years.

"With more than a decade worth of research reports and success stories behind it, READ 180 has helped change the trajectory of the lives of countless children and turn around schools and districts that struggled for years to raise reading achievement," said Margery Mayer, President of Scholastic Education. "The school districts we serve expect us to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies. By investing in READ 180 Next Generation, schools are getting new, exciting content that students will love, instruction and training based on the most up-to-date research, and sophisticated technology that is proven to work."

What is READ 180 Next Generation?

Recognizing that raising reading achievement is a responsibility co-owned by teachers, school leaders and students, READ 180 Next Generation includes new tools, instruction and content to support each of those groups.

For teachers, READ 180 Next Generation provides new dashboards to help them become experts on data, differentiating instruction and lesson planning. The dashboard design draws upon user-friendly technologies like those used in online banking to deliver instructional data to teachers anytime/anywhere and helps them sort through it, analyze it and use it to provide targeted instruction that addresses each student's specific needs.

For students, new tools are designed to give them more ownership and accountability over their learning, more motivation to push themselves toward success, and more exciting and relevant content. Student dashboards tap into research on gaming by giving students the ability to more clearly track their progress, see evidence of their success and earn rewards for topping their "personal bests." Rewarding personal achievements and acknowledging individual success is especially motivating for students who have experienced school failure in the past.

For school leaders, Scholastic has created technology that gives school and district leaders access to student-by-student, class-by-class and school-by-school data so they can track the success of their READ 180 implementation. They can sign up for e-mail alerts when various progress indicators are achieved and quickly know where their attention is required, and get snapshots of student success from across a school or district.

For families, Scholastic has launched a new Family Portal designed to connect parents to the classroom. The portal is completely bilingual in English and Spanish and contains information and videos to educate parents about how READ 180 works, how their students' progress is measured, and what they can do at home to support their children's literacy.

About READ 180

READ 180 is a comprehensive system of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development that helps schools raise reading achievement for struggling readers in grades 4–12. In READ 180 classrooms, students move in small groups through rotations that include adaptive technology, independent reading and direct, individualized instruction from the teacher. The technology tracks student progress every day, delivering personalized instruction to the student and data to the teacher that makes differentiation easy.

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SOURCE Scholastic Corporation