|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5/3/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Steve Rossi
Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
805-541-3836
www.LindamoodBell.com
|
| | Gallup-McKinley county schools work to close the achievement gap by implementing Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes |
| San Luis Obispo, Calif., May 3, 2007 – Gallup-McKinley School District is closing the achievement gap by implementing Lindamood-Bell’s literacy programs in 13 schools throughout the district.
Gallup-McKinley is the largest school district geographically in the continental United States. It is situated in the middle of the biggest Native American reservation in the country, the Navajo Nation. Gallup-McKinley County Schools house over 12,935 students in 34 schools. Eighty-five percent of these students qualify for free and reduced lunch and 93 percent are of a minority status. Over half of the student population speaks English as a second language and 37 percent live below poverty level. Because of these statistics, the district has made a significant effort to improve the level of literacy in Gallup-McKinley students.
The district joined with Lindamood-Bell in 2004 and successfully implemented the “whole school model” in four Reading First Elementary schools and one Title 1 elementary school. This model ensures that all K-5 classrooms spend 30-45 minutes per day developing sensory-cognitive processes with Lindamood-Bell® programs. Students who score below grade level on state testing will be placed in small groups of five or less for two hours of daily intensive Lindamood-Bell® instruction. Students have made significant gains from these programs and approximately 200 district staff have received training in Lindamood-Bell® instruction.
“The students feel more confident and comfortable with their reading abilities,” Dorothy Wilkinson, a Title One teacher at Gallup High School said. “One of our students at Gallup High School made reading gains of three grade levels after twelve weeks of instruction.”
Gallup-McKinley school district and Lindamood-Bell will begin utilizing the Talkies® and Visualizing and Verbalizing® programs to address early childhood learning with preschool age students. Twelve preschool sites and over 50 Head Start sites will use these programs with students between the ages of three and four years old.
|
| About Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes:
Lindamood-Bell is an internationally recognized leader in the research and development of programs for learning difficulties, and collaborates with hundreds of schools to provide innovative instructional programs, professional development and consulting. Lindamood-Bell has received national recognition from CNN, Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report and the neuroscience journal, Neuron, along with being featured on the PBS special, The Secret Life of the Brain. Lindamood-Bell’s programs are also the featured subject matter of a five-year study on a major school district reform to close the achievement gap, published in the American Education Research Journal (AERJ). |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|