Sopris Partners With Renowned Reading and Brain Researcher to Publish RAVE-O Reading Intervention Program

LONGMONT, Colo., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Sopris, a business unit of Cambium Learning Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABCD), announced today that the company has signed an agreement with Maryanne Wolf, Ed.D. and Tufts University to publish RAVE-O (Reading through Automaticity, Vocabulary, Engagement, and Orthography), an innovative, intensive, multisensory, small group reading intervention for grades two through four. The proven effective program, which was developed after more than 10 years of research, including grants from National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and Institute for Educational Science, targets serious reading challenges, particularly in the areas of fluency and comprehension.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100129/CLGROUPLOGO )

Designed for small group instruction, RAVE-O provides ample teacher support and highly engaging, multisensory student materials, including a technology-based fluency program. Much of the engagement of RAVE-O is achieved through hands-on activities using many kinds of materials, which literally allow students to play with language-breaking apart words, learning common letter patterns, examining morphological roots and affixes, and identifying grammatical uses and multiple meanings.

As described by Maryanne Wolf, "RAVE-O represents our best efforts to date of simulating what the brain does when it reads. We want to help children develop and learn to connect rapidly all the major areas involved in reading. This multi-dimensional approach helps address the varied reasons that different children struggle to learn to read. Most importantly, it helps children become fluent enough to have time to think for themselves about what they read -- our ultimate goal."  

The major goals of the program are to:

• Increase ability to read fluently with comprehension
• Take fluency to a new level -- beyond repeated reading
• Expand language knowledge -- from vocabulary and grammar to the underlying roots of words
• Generate excitement about words -- their multiple meanings, relationships, different grammatical uses and word parts
• Engage the attention of struggling readers with memorable, creative, and often whimsical metacognitive strategies and activities
• Renew struggling readers' sense of themselves as successful learners

"We have been following the development and efficacy of RAVE-O for some time. Both the program and its creator fit perfectly with Cambium Learning Group's mission and exclusive focus on the most challenged learners in the U.S.," says David Cappellucci, President of Cambium Learning Group. "Dr. Wolf joins Cambium's already distinguished group of leading authors and researchers in the areas of literacy, mathematics, special education, and behavior. RAVE-O has behind it over $7 million of research and field testing, and as such continues Cambium's high standard of providing evidence-based programs, services, and technologies."

RAVE-O will be available in early summer 2010. For more information about the program, visit www.soprislearning.com.

About Sopris

For over 35 years, Sopris has focused exclusively on moving all students to their full academic potential. With a firm commitment to bridging the gap between research and practice, Sopris supplemental products focus on the full spectrum of academic support -- including assessment, supplements, intervention, positive behavior supports, and professional development.  Whether implemented in a single classroom or school-/district-wide, Sopris supplements have been proven to strengthen core instruction and to quickly and positively impact the academic achievement of students in literacy, math, and spoken language. Sopris is a business unit of Cambium Learning Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABCD) based in Dallas, Texas. For more information, please visit soprislearning.com.

About Maryanne Wolf, Ed.D.

Maryanne Wolf is the Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in the Department of Human Development and Psychology in the Graduate School of Education, where she began her work on the neurological underpinnings of reading, language, and dyslexia. Professor Wolf was awarded the Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Psychological Association, and also the Teaching Excellence Award from the American Psychological Association. Her recent book Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain has now been translated into 11 languages.

SOURCE Cambium Learning Group, Inc.; Sopris