Phoenix, AZ (January 19, 2006) -- More than 5 million English Language Learners (ELL) are enrolled in public schools across the nation, requiring tailored instructional materials and resources that support English language and literacy acquisition.  This need is especially great in school districts that are faced with new or growing populations of ELL students. As part of its ongoing commitment to help schools meet the instructional needs of all students and recognizing the critical role of teachers in this endeavor, Scholastic Education is launching several new technology-based products, a professional development course, and books and magazines that introduce and reinforce essential skills and develop strong readers and learners.  This comprehensive suite of reading solutions will be unveiled at the annual National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) conference in Phoenix, AZ from January 18-21. 
 
Scholastic Education’s programs are based on solid research in reading and second language learning. The Company worked with leading experts in the field to develop these programs, including Dr. Diane August, Senior Research Scientist, Center for Applied Linguistics; Dr. Timothy Shanahan, Professor of Urban Education, University of Illinois at Chicago; Dr. Maria Carlo, Assistant Professor in the Teaching and Learning Program, University of Miami School of Education; Dr. Elfrieda Hiebert, Visiting Research Professor, University of California at Berkley; Dr. Margo Gottlieb, Director of Assessment and Evaluation, Illinois Research Center; and Dr. Ted Hasselbring, William T. Bryan Professor and Endowed Chair in Special Education Technology,  University of Kentucky.
 
“Since its founding, Scholastic has had a fundamental belief in the ability of all children to achieve the highest levels of academic success.  English Language Learners are a vital and growing part of our society and it is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that they acquire the key literacy and language skills they need to have equal opportunities to experience success in school and in life.  These new research-based programs for ELLs and their teachers reaffirm Scholastic’s commitment,” said Margery Mayer, President of Scholastic Education, a division of Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company.
 
TECHNOLOGY-BASED READING SOLUTIONS:  
To help ELLs become fluent readers, Scholastic Education is offering an array of technology products that provide effective differentiated instruction, immediate, corrective feedback, and vocabulary support in students’ native languages. 
 
Scholastic Zip Zoom™ English:
To engage and support beginning ELLs in grades K-3, Scholastic is launching Zip Zoom English, a research-based instructional system that combines the power of technology with groundbreaking books to simultaneously accelerate children’s movement into English while teaching important literacy skills.  Zip Zoom English helps students build a strong vocabulary, increase word recognition, develop oral language and syntax, and improve listening and reading comprehension through interactive computer-based lessons that individualize and reinforce instruction. Zip Zoom English is the result of six years of educational research and development from the Pacific Regional Education Lab (PREL). Independent third party research was conducted by WestEd to reveal a consistent trend of improved early phonemic awareness, phonics, and sight word recognition for ELL students using the program. 
 
In addition to the software component, Zip Zoom English includes the Zip Zoom Critical Word Readers, research-based, sequential books for beginning ELL readers with flexible teacher lesson plans for intensive instruction. The Zip Zoom Critical Word Readers are based on Dr. Elfrieda Hiebert’s “critical word” research, which demonstrates that students learning English benefit from having repeated encounters with texts featuring critical words, including high meaning, high frequency, and decodable words. Recent research evaluating the effectiveness of the Zip Zoom Critical Word Readers reveals that students reading with these books for only 12 weeks improved their oral fluency by 3.4 words correct per minute for every week of instruction – exceeding the rate that researchers propose as necessary for closing the English language learner achievement gap.
 
READ 180®, Enterprise Edition:
Based on more than a decade of research in the lab, six years of classroom usage, best practices from educators, and ongoing collaboration with adolescent literacy experts, Scholastic Education releases READ 180, Enterprise Edition, the first major revision of the nationally recognized reading intervention program launched in 1999. READ 180, Enterprise Edition, continues to deliver research-based and effective reading instruction for students in grades 4 and above who struggle to read proficiently, and now offers a new teaching system and management tools to have an even greater impact on helping students make quantifiable gains in reading achievement. Additionally, READ 180 now provides support for ELLs in five languages, comprising Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Hmong, and Haitian Creole. 
 
The Enterprise Edition provides a more explicit instructional path for whole and small group lessons, making it easier for teachers to implement the program and differentiate instruction based on students’ progress and reading levels, and also helps them identify resources based on students’ needs and learn best practices for teaching literacy to struggling readers. The new technology platform features the Scholastic Achievement Manager™ (SAM), an innovative management system that continuously captures data on student performance and provides teachers and administrators with robust technology tools to easily manage student data, run reports, and locate resources. SAM also supports more concurrent student users and allows educators to disaggregate student data by AYP groups and chart progress at the classroom, building, and district levels. 
 
An independent evaluation conducted in the Los Angeles Unified District shows that the program helped a group of ELLs make significant gains in reading throughout the course of one year. Additional studies in districts, including Fairfax County Public Schools and St. Paul School District, showed similar improvements. 
 
ReadAbout:™
ReadAbout is a new supplemental reading achievement program designed to improve vocabulary and comprehension skills, and increase content-area knowledge for all students, including English language learners, in grades 3 through 6. The program differentiates instruction to provide a personal learning experience for each student and incorporates high-interest reading choices, engaging video clips, corrective feedback, and a unique digital reward system to keep students fully engaged, helping them to develop the skills they need to become effective readers. 
 
A powerful tool for ELLs, ReadAbout’s vocabulary lists have been informed by research-based, high-utility and content-area word lists as well as grade-level texts in order to increase vocabulary acquisition and build academic language. And throughout the software, students encounter text and voiceover support for all key instruction, Spanish translations of smart words, meanings, captions, anchor video introductions, and topic introductions, and read aloud for all passages with phrase-by-phrase highlighting.
 
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Recognizing that many teachers have not been given adequate training in reading instruction for ELLs, Scholastic Red®, a comprehensive professional development program that is based on scientific reading research, has developed a new online course to help teachers in grades K-3 promote language proficiency, literacy and content knowledge with these students.
 
Scholastic RED: Reading Success for English Language Learners:
Reading Success for English Language Learners combines innovative online instruction with in-person study groups to guide teachers through techniques to differentiate instruction based on students’ levels of English proficiency. The course, developed by Drs. August and Shanahan, among other education experts, offers video modeling of effective strategies to accelerate reading achievement. It also teaches all educators how to monitor students’ English language development through formal and informal assessments and observations in order to differentiate and teach specifically to students’ reading ability levels. This Scholastic RED course also helps K-3 teachers choose and use a wide variety of engaging books and resources, like the ones featured in New Connections™ to English Classroom Libraries, as well as the Web and software such as Zip Zoom English and READ 180, to introduce and reinforce language, vocabulary and concepts that are key to ELLs’ academic success.  This course is designed to support any reading curriculum and is accredited by major universities for graduate credit.
 
Aligned to national and state standards and correlated to all major reading programs, Scholastic RED courses provide teachers with a unique combination of in-person training, collaboration with peers and self-paced, individualized online learning. Nationwide, 92% of all teachers who use Scholastic RED complete their courses, 99% would recommend Scholastic RED to other teachers and 100% of the districts that use Scholastic RED continue to offer additional RED courses to their teachers year after year.
 
BOOKS AND MAGAZINES:
Scholastic Education is also introducing new collections of books and a classroom magazine to help teachers extend students’ language and literacy development at different levels of proficiency.
 
New Connections™ to English Classroom Libraries: Best Books for English Language Learners:
Reading high-quality literature is an excellent means of developing children’s language proficiency, including vocabulary and comprehension skills.  New Connections to English Classroom Libraries are grade-specific libraries of carefully selected trade books for independent reading and reading aloud.  The libraries are designed to help meet the needs of students with little-to-mid-level language proficiencies.  Each grade-specific library for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 offers a progression through this range with a diverse selection of titles that provide the right levels of challenge and support. The content of each library is structured around a language-centered curriculum in consideration of grade-level expectations and developmental appropriateness.
 
In addition, an in-depth, ELL Strategy Handbook provides teachers with important background information about second language acquisition, recommendations for using classroom libraries with ELLs, and ready-to-use reproducibles to support teachers and students in the most effective use of the libraries. As a bonus, teachers will also receive 7 bestselling reference resources including Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms, The Pledge of Allegiance, and Hello World: Greetings in 42 Languages Around the Globe!
 
Scholastic News® English/Español:
Scholastic News English/Español is a new bilingual classroom magazine for students in grades 1-3 that is offered bimonthly. The magazine’s unique flip-format allows Spanish-speaking students to read in their native language and then turn the magazine over to get the same content in English.  The magazine is flexible, enables a gradual shift in language emphasis, conforms to current research and delivers quality, on-level science and social studies content. Age-appropriate nonfiction materials and bright
engaging visuals help students build essential grade-level background knowledge as they make positive connections to Spanish-speaking countries and culture. Scholastic News English/Español includes special English vocabulary-building features and posters, a Teacher’s Guide that offers reproducible pages, Web and print resources in Spanish and English, and ELL activity ideas to enrich classroom learning.    
 
Scholastic has published and distributed a wide range of Spanish-language and bilingual books and materials for children, parents and teachers in the United States and throughout the world for over 45 years through Lectorum Publications, Club Leo™ and Scholastic en Español.  In 2004, Scholastic Media launched Maya & Miguel™, an original, groundbreaking television series and multi-media initiative in response to the needs of our nation’s children who are growing up as part of the country’s most diverse population ever. The Company also recently launched Lee y serás® (Read and You Will Be), a groundbreaking early literacy initiative that engages Latino families and communities in the literacy development of their children.
 
About Scholastic
Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology.  Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys.  The Company distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs, school-based book fairs, and school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs; retail stores, schools, libraries and television networks; and the Company's Internet site, www.scholastic.com.

Contacts: