Testimonials
What Educator's Say About the EIRŽ Program
First Grade Teacher from a Suburban School in Moundsview, Minnesota
"I never thought I would see such growth in kids' reading. Every student in the group made tremendous progress."
More Comments from First and Second Grade Teachers in Eight Suburban Schools in Moundsview, Minnesota
"I have been teaching eleven years and never really knew how to help struggling readers. My colleague who has been teaching for thirty years said she should have had this staff development years ago. I really think the training is the most comprehensive I have seen."
"This is my first year teaching. If it hadn't been for EIR, I wouldn't have known how to teach reading. EIR works and I see so much progress with children who were really struggling in the fall."
"The strength of this process is in the staff development for teachers. I'm so glad that our classroom teachers now take responsibility for struggling readers."
"The staff development really helped me in the way I approach all readers in my classroom."
Principal of a School with a 99.9% Poverty Level in Oklahoma City, OK (after three months of EIRŽ)
"The level of reading interest exhibited by our students has increased substantially. They will stop anyone and everyone that is an adult and read to them. Their sense of pride in their "new" ability has been exciting to watch."
"Our mid-year (December 2001) ITBS scores in grade 3 showed an increase of ten percentile points in the Reading Total from September 2001."
"Our grade 2 students are utilizing the strategies that they have learned in decoding. They are self-correcting and becoming independent readers."
"Their fluency, retelling and higher level thinking skills have also shown improvement."
"Our grade 1 students are independently reading and retelling. They are using decoding skills and questioning skills in EIR and in their independent self-selected reading. We have found EIR to be extremely beneficial for our ESL students because they read and hear the same story repeatedly."
"Many of the kindergarten students are beginning to sound out words and all of them have learned pre-reading skills. Their phonemic awareness skills are already developing, which will give them a better foundation for grade 1."
Former Principal of a School with an 84% Poverty Level in Minneapolis, Minnesota
"I would highly recommend EIRŽ as an intervention process for children. The embedded staff development, which is a major part of EIR, is crucial to its success. This process is a catalyst to move teachers toward supporting one another across grade levels and reflecting on instruction, which are so important to improving student achievement."
EIRŽ Coordinator of Eight Elementary Schools in Rural Escanaba, Michigan
"The professional development process is excellent. The on-line process is a powerful tool for helping every teacher successfully implement EIR. The monthly staff development and support through the phone conferencing with the certified EIR trainer are extremely effective. Teachers receive the ongoing support they need and feel very connected to the EIR trainer. All of the EIR Internet staff is great about quick responses to any questions or requests. The monthly meetings are developing a school based collaborative model where teachers are working together across grade levels, reflecting on instructional practices and learning from one another."
Former Title One Coordinator from Suburban Schools in Stillwater, Minnesota and Current Title One Staff Member of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning
"Thirty-six grade 1, 2, and 3 teachers participated in the EIR training over the course of a year. In addition, the district had a waiting list of teachers who wanted to join the group. The training was excellent and teacher enthusiasm ran high throughout the school year. Even better, were student results that demonstrated strong reading gains among all groups of students."