Jennifer Hazelton Special Education Coordinator Orchard Middle School 387 Pine Hill Road Orchard, VT 02331 703-555-1212 x342 Read to Succeed! Improving Reading Performance for At Risk Students Project Abstract The project abstract should present a concise summary of the project. It should be no longer than a page and include the need for the project and the population it will serve, a brief description of the project and its goals and objectives, as well as the applicant’s background and qualifications. Make sure you include the amount of funding that is being sought. Finally, mention how the program will be evaluated to measure the success of the programs. The abstract should be the last section you write. The Orchard Middle School, in Orchard, VT is seeking a grant to expand our Read to Succeed! program with the objective of helping all of our at risk students increase their reading skills and to read at grade level using the same classroom textbooks and materials as their peers. The objective is that by the end of the year the students will have at least doubled their reading speed and will have improved their reading skills by one to two grade levels. The Read to Succeed! program is based on the latest research on effective reading instruction. Funding in the amount of $16,504 is requested for staff training and to purchase the required software and hardware for the school’s resource room. Statement of Need The statement of need should describe the problem that the project will attempt to address. Also, describe the population that will be served. Orchard Middle School has 276 students, of which 59 have been determined to be at risk in their reading performance for a variety of reasons including learning disabilities, such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and dyslexia, or other economic and language-based difficulties. Orchard Middle School is eligible for Title 1 funds and if these students are not given an opportunity to improve their reading skills they are, as studies show, more likely to be truant and drop out of school. Program Description Describe the project or program and provide information on how it will be implemented. Include information on what will be accomplished and the desired outcome. The Orchard Read to Succeed! project will enable at risk students to improve their reading skills through utilization of five computers equipped with scanners and assistive reading software. Students using this innovative reading system will be able to utilize all their classroom materials, including textbooks providing them access to the general curriculum. The students will increase their reading speed and comprehension, which will help them obtain classroom subject proficiency. Included in the Read to Succeed! project will be a day of training for the reading specialist and classroom teachers on the features and use of the Kurzweil 3000 software. Kurzweil 3000 Assistive Reading Technology Include information on any new assistive technology that you will be using, or attach a brochure from the manufacturer to the Appendix section of proposal. Kurzweil 3000 software, from Kurzweil Educational Systems, uses a multi-sensory approach to help students with learning and reading difficulties. The Kurzweil 3000 was developed for people with reading difficulties caused by learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder (ADD) and other language based difficulties. The Kurzweil 3000 is research-based assistive reading software developed with guidance from leading reading experts. It enables all children access to state and national curricula and conforms to today’s research focused funding requirements. With the Kurzweil 3000, a student with reading difficulties has access to textbooks and classroom materials displayed as an exact image on the computer screen. The text is then read aloud using the highest quality, most human sounding synthetic speech while highlighting words and sentences visually on screen. One of the benefits of using assistive reading technology, such as the Kurzweil 3000, is that students are able access classroom textbooks for increased access to general curriculum materials. This means they can use the same materials used in the classroom and the students are able to continue learning in the least restrictive environment. In addition to reading tools, Kurzweil 3000 includes audible tools to assist word decoding (syllabification and spelling), tools to assist with writing (spell-checking and word-prediction), and a tool that speaks and highlights pages from the Internet, opening up a whole world of knowledge. The Kurzweil 300 can also be used for classroom and standardized test-taking, offering more independence for both the student and teacher. Assistive reading technology has been shown (e.g., Heckler, L., Burns, L., Katz, L., Elkind, J., and Elkind, K. 2002 ; Elkind 1998) to help poor readers increase reading speed and comprehension, as well as increase attention.