Making the Grade
Cutting-edge programs offer students an adventure in learning

Students at Westwood Elementary get a boost in their reading skills from SAFARI, a program that utilizes interactive computer programs and other techniques to make reading fun.

Families hunting for quality education would do well to make tracks for Manchester City Schools, where students are bagging big gains in reading through a program called SAFARI.

SAFARI an acronym for Student Assistance for At-Risk Intervention is an after-school program that reinforces student achievement from pre-kindergarten on up.

"Intervention has to begin early; usually, the children with poor reading skills are the ones that eventually drop out," says Westwood Elementary School Principal Sandra Morris of the two-hour-per-week program.

"Reading is a big target area for us."

The program is armed with plenty of ammunition to attack reading problems.

"We help with homework, the students go to a technology center, we do social skills development, and we go on special outings," Morris says.

SAFARI is complemented by a new high-tech CD-ROM and Internet research project Fast ForWard Into School Success. The first in Middle Tennessee to use this program, Westwoods students play five levels of a computer game individually modified to target and improve specific pre-reading and reading comprehension problems.

"The research is showing that this program is actually rewiring the brain to hear these sounds," Morris says of the interactive program that speaks to the students.

"They can start out at a lower level of speech slower and simpler," Morris says.

"A teacher cant always slow down, but a machine can. And with the students able to repeat the work as often as they choose, repetition is no problem either."

Students work on the computer exercises 100 minutes a day, five days a week. The computer and an Internet site keep track of progress and accelerate the next days game.

Computer time is no problem because the school owns 200 computers, many already online, Morris says.

One of the first six Fast ForWard students jumped nearly two grade levels in reading during the six-week trial run. All the others had great gains, too.

Unlike many programs, Morris is excited about the long-term benefits of this program for students.

"The research shows that they dont lose the gains," she says.

The Manchester City Schools system serves over 1,200 students with a 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio. To visit the school systems Web site, log on to www.manchestertn.com and then click on the SchoolNet icon.

by Wendy Kurland
Photo by David Mudd