Joshua Burke, a third-grader last year, read at kindergarten level before he underwent intensive lessons at the Emerald Clinic last spring, his mother said. He advanced about a year in several weeks there, she said. The districts on both sides of Anchorage have each tried Lindamood-Bell programs with different degrees of success. The Kenai district uses Lindamood-Bell programs as part of a package of tools used to rescue students seriously behind, Boehmer said. Kenai has been conducting a reading project in 16 or its 27 primary schools for four years.
Teachers test children and diagnose problems by the end of kindergarten.
If a child isn't progressing in regular reading he'll get an additional structured reading class called reading mastery. It emphasizes learning the sounds and symbols that make up words. If that doesn't work well, the child moves into the more intensive Lindamood-Bell program. Boehmer and Worthington said 60 percent or more of all kids learn to read proficiently with any competent instruction. Kenai's goal is for 90 percent of the children who need extra help to be proficient readers by the end of second grade.