High-Poverty School District in Colorado Implementing Lindamood-Bell Exceeds Expectations in Academic Achievement
Colorado, Colorado State Assessments, Elementary School Results, Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing, Seeing Stars, Visualizing and Verbalizing
Pueblo City Schools in Pueblo, Colorado, serves a large percentage of students who are on free and reduced-price lunch. During the 2004-05 school year, nearly all elementary schools in the district implemented Lindamood-Bell® instruction to address the specific needs of this student population. Students received Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing instruction to develop symbol and concept imagery for reading and comprehension. Instruction was delivered by Pueblo teachers who received professional development in the Lindamood-Bell programs. In an independent analysis conducted by RBC Dain Rauscher Inc., student gains were measured with the spring 2005 state achievement test and compared to the other 24 largest school districts in Colorado.
Results
This chart shows the inverse relationship between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Districts with lower percentages of students on free lunch typically have higher proficiency levels (e.g., district at the bottom of chart: 8% free lunch vs. 81% proficient) and vice versa. Pueblo is the exception with over two-thirds of their students on free lunch (68%) and over two-thirds proficient (70%). The results of this study illustrate that Lindamood-Bell instruction in the Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing programs lead to improved reading and comprehension, which is essential to achieving success with school curricula.
Profile
Number of Districts: 25
Grade Levels: 3rd-5th
Lindamood-Bell Programs Implemented:
· Seeing Stars®
· Visualizing and Verbalizing®
Outcome Measures: Colorado Student Assessment Program (reading, writing, and math)
