BACK TO SCHOOL TECH: MORE CLASSROOMS ADOPT LIGHTSAIL’S READING PLATFORM TO IMPROVE LITERACY
NEW YORK, August 24, 2016 –In classrooms from New York to California, more students than ever are forecast to have devices that support their learning when they go back to school, including thousands equipped with LightSail to support reading and literacy growth.
LightSail, a leading education technology dedicated to turning students everywhere into readers, is more accessible than ever as school districts increasingly adopt digital tools. More than 17 million students and teachers use devices such as Google Chromebooks and Apple iPads across the US. That has paved the way for hundreds of thousands of students as well as hundreds of districts to use LightSail when they resume school this month, including the New York City Department of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools, and Boston Public Schools.
Many school districts are committing to LightSail following successful pilots. For example, Schuylerville, New York sixth graders used LightSail to help grow their literacy assessment scores last academic year. Teacher Laurie Guyon reports that her English students improved their Lexile scores by 2.5 times, and says one exceptional result was illustrated by a student who advanced multiple grade levels.
“They started reading a lot more nonfiction than I would have expected, on topics that I didn’t realize would be appealing, like tornados or recycling, and even got into biographies,” Guyon said. Some students continued to use LightSail for their summer reading, too.
“If students continue to show excitement for reading over the summer, they’ll come back to school in the fall ready to learn,” Guyon said. “We look forward to continuing to use this and other apps to enhance the way our students learn.”
Her experience is consistent with the results of a study by Johns Hopkins University that found students who read on LightSail for seven weeks over the summer reversed “summer slide.” Students in the study returned to school in September reading at a level teachers would not expect to see until the following November.
Based on its success in the U.S., LightSail is now taking its digital literacy platform globally to close the worldwide reading achievement gap. LightSail’s international markets now include parts of Latin America, including Mexico and Guatemala, as well as China, Singapore, Spain, and South Africa.
“Children use digital devices before they walk, so the transition to digital learning is easier for them, in many ways, than for our educational system,” Gideon Stein, LightSail Founder and CEO, said. “LightSail helps schools and teachers exceed literacy goals, foster a love of reading, and measure literacy progress. Together, we can provide our schools and kids with the reading and comprehension skills they need to succeed.”
About LightSail Education
LightSail is the adaptive reading platform that helps students, classrooms and school districts exceed their literacy goals. LightSail students get access to personalized libraries filled with thousands of engaging, just-right texts from which to choose. Our award-winning solution embeds in-text assessments that motivate students to increase the volume of their reading along with the difficulty of the texts they choose. LightSail teachers get real-time access to meaningful data about student reading behavior, comprehension, and growth so they can provide the necessary guidance to enhance learning and encourage a love of reading.
A study just released by Johns Hopkins University found that students reading a little as 30 minutes a day on LightSail experienced gains at a rate of 2.7x annual expected growth.
For more information, visit lightsailed.com.
Posted on 8.Aug.16 in News
