CENTERVILLE — St. Mary Parish Superinten-dent Donald Aguillard said FastForWord educational software products in use in the parish since 2006 are “stunning.”

“We saw the benefits almost immediately and ramped it up to eight schools in the first year,” Aguillard said, adding the software is now used by about 3,000 students in 22 schools in the parish.

St. Mary Parish schools’ use of the product has caught the company’s attention, as it has designated the school system as a reference for other school systems.

Advertisement

Lisa Wilson is a teacher’s aide at Hattie Watts Elementary School in Patterson, one of 23 teachers and aides in the district who work with FastForWord. She said the software benefits students “across the board.”

“It increases their attention spans so they can hold their attention longer while the teacher is teaching. They can listen longer,” Wilson said. “It increases their processing abilities and their memory.”

Developed by Oakland, Calif.-based Scientific Lear-ning Corp., FastForWord software is designed to “accelerate learning by developing the student brain to process more efficiently” and “to provide struggling readers with computer-delivered exercises that build the cognitive skills required to read and learn effectively,” a company press release said.

St. Mary Parish schools were selected due to significant gains made by using the software, the system’s commitment to improving student reading skills using computer technology.

FastForWord District team member Bridget Guillot said student progress is measured by the Reading Progress Indicator, which comes with the software package. It is also measured from Integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program scores. In what she describes as “good news,” Guillot said that in four months the district has seen 33 percent of students move to higher levels of reading.

“Every month we monitor the RPI assessment and what we’re seeing is a large percentage of students moving to higher levels of reading and language arts skills,” Guillot said.

In addition to serving as a resource for other school districts on use of the software, St. Mary Parish schools will participate in research to help Scientific Learning Corp. in the effectiveness of its software and services, the company said.

Aguillard said the school district is prepared to help any school district that might be interested in learning more about FastForWord, adding school districts in Rapides and Caddo parishes could buy the software.

“We’ve seen a marked increase in student performance in schools that have used the FastFor-Word program,” Aguillard said. “We’re looking forward to sharing our success with other districts looking to jump-start literacy proficiency and close the achievement gap.”