Colorado School Implementing Lindamood-Bell Outperforms Comparison Schools in Reading and Overall Academic Performance

Colorado, Elementary School Results, Seeing Stars, Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, Visualizing and Verbalizing

Haskin Elementary School in Center, Colorado, serves a large percentage of students who are at-risk of reading failure. From 2010–11 to 2013-14, Haskin implemented Lindamood-Bell® instruction to address the specific needs of this student population. The first three years of this project, 2010-11 through 2012-13, were funded through a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG). Five other elementary schools in Colorado implemented other SIG interventions over the same period of time to turn around their schools. These were the first elementary schools (i.e., Cohort I) to receive SIG funding. Haskin students received Seeing Stars® and Visualizing and Verbalizing® instruction to develop symbol imagery and concept imagery for reading and comprehension. Instruction was delivered by Haskin teachers who received professional development in the Lindamood-Bell programs. Gains on the reading portion of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) and School Performance Framework (SPF) were compared between Haskin and the other SIG elementary schools, which were not implementing Lindamood-Bell instruction (Note: One of the five schools opened in 2010 and didn’t have TCAP results, so it’s not included in the results for the comparison schools).

Results
Haskin gained 39 points on the TCAP compared to 10 points for the comparison schools. In addition, Haskin’s change on the SPF was over eight times that of the comparison schools. Haskin also had the largest improvement in SPF plan types—from the lowest (turnaround) to the highest (performance). In fact, Haskin was one of only five elementary schools in all of Colorado to go from turnaround in 2010 to performance in 2014. The results of this study illustrate that Lindamood-Bell instruction in the Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing programs leads to improved reading and comprehension, which is essential to achieving success with school curricula.

Profile
Number of Schools:
· 1 Lindamood-Bell
· 4 Comparison

Grade Levels: 3rd-5th

Lindamood-Bell Programs Implemented:
· Seeing Stars®
· Visualizing and Verbalizing

Outcome Measures:
· Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (reading)
· School Performance Framework