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Wayne Opsahl. Journal Article. The American School Board Journal. Reading with Style. Feb 1997 This was an article about how one school district improved their reading test scores. The school district was Uvalde, Texas, where only 21 percent of their students passed the RTexas Assessment of Skills TestS. By May 1996 of the following year, more than 70 percent of the students were passing the test. The improvement was do to how they implemented things into their reading program. They were eligible for several grants because of their low test scores so they decided to use that money and implement several new programs. They implemented a six week summer session to students who were in danger of being retained in the first grade and a learning styles curriculum at another school. They also put all principals on a one year contracts rather than two year contracts and warned vthem that the contract limitation would be lifted only if the schools improve. Teachers and administrators began to implement the reading styles approach, which allows children to build on their strengths. Using this approach, children are diagnosed as auditory; visual, tactile or kinesthetic learners. Auditory learners respond best to what they hear; visual learners respond best to what they see; and tactile learners respond best in a situation that involves the sense of touch; and kinesthetic learners become most engaged when they move. They later found out that nearly 80 percent of their students that had been recommended for retention were either tactile or kinesthetic learners. This reading-styles method adapts to each childUs particular learning style and encourages a relaxed atmosphere. They participated in implementing these methods for the next 12 months including summer sessions and dramatically increased their test scores as a result of changing to the reading styles approach.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 1999