FastPath

Part research. Part technology. All results.

The Challenge

Thanks to an increasing number of children receiving systemic phonics instruction, 3^rd grade reading scores are improving. However, 74% of 8^th grade students read below grade level¹  and 62% of high school seniors cannot read proficiently.²  This crisis is particularly acute among minority students. Only 21% of African Americans and 35% of Hispanic high school graduates can comprehend college textbooks.³

Our Solution

Meeting state standards requires an extensive vocabulary and a number of critical reasoning skills. One reason instructional materials in the K-12 market today are ineffective is because they assume that students have already mastered these important sub-skills of reading and don’t include them in their programs. Our program, on the other hand, focuses on the essential sub-skills of reading.

Part research

The FastPath Learning curriculum is based on research conducted at Victoria University of Wellington and other leading universities.

Our academic vocabulary program teaches approximately 2,854 high-frequency words that comprise nearly 87% of college textbook vocabulary. Recent research indicates that vocabulary instruction aimed at increasing reading comprehension is more effective when it focuses on commonly occurring words.

FastPath Learning has created a unique instructional interface that allows students to benefit from mastery teaching. Any word missed by the student is presented again until the student demonstrates mastery of each term.

Our critical reasoning program teaches seven skills that help to deduce the remaining 13% of content in college textbooks, fully comprehend written material and more readily pass standardized tests. These are:

Recitation, Definition Replacement, Completing Syllogisms, Completing Analogies, Sequencing, Categorization, Inference

 

Part technology

We’ve harnessed the latest technologies to create innovative software that makes building vocabulary and reading comprehension fast, convenient and dare we say… fun.

Individualized Learning Plans

Students start out with very different vocabularies, so our software individualizes instruction and fills in the gaps in each student’s unique vocabulary.  Students are only taught the meaning of words that they do not already know.

Precision Teaching Interface

The innovative interface of our software does not prompt answers like multiple-choice questions do. It allows students to practice their critical reasoning skills efficiently. Students don’t need to type the whole answer, and so they can complete many more questions per minute. This makes better use of precious academic engage time. It also helps students improve the speed with which they can apply each skill. This type of precision teaching is essential for achieving skills fluency and long-term retention of skills.

Continuous Progress Reporting

Our accelerated learning system delivers continuous progress monitoring through detailed, daily progress and attendance reports for every participating student. Reports of time on task by students are provided to teachers, principals, and superintendents on a regular basis.

FastPath Reading and Starcrosser

Our online reading platform is fun, interactive, and has game-like features. We use the power of curiosity to motivate students.

Our program will entertain and inform, allowing your student to:

• Compete with friends for high scores
• Earn badges for outstanding performance
• Prepare for success in college

Learning doesn’t have to be dull and boring. We’ve made it fun!

Starcrosser

New in 2012, FastPath Learning has introduced Starcrosser, our coming of age adventure of cosmic proportions!

Starcrosser is an epic graphic novel that follows the story of a visitor from another planet Luq, who comes to Earth to save his world. In order to create the things he needs to protect his home planet, Luq must learn new vocabulary words in order to comprehend Earth texts. 

Students earn Starcrosser pages by tutoring online. This not only motivates them to keep tutoring, it also provides them with reading practice. Furthermore, Starcrosser introduces various careers through the course of the story, so students gain an awareness of the different trade and career opportunities made available through education.

All results

Houston – Rapid Progress

FastPath Learning provided Houston Independent School District’s Woodson Middle School with a vocabulary and reading comprehension pilot program. The three-week pilot program was held during the first session of summer school and included 92 students in grades 6-8 who were in school-mandated summer school for failing to pass the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) or other significant academic or behavioral issues.

Students who completed the first phase of the program spent an average of 10 hours on the ReadingResults software. As a result, 41 of the 92 students who completed the first phase increased one grade level or more on the NWEA MAPs test. The majority of the students who completed the program showed growth on the NWEA MAPs. The mean NWEA scaled score on the pre-test was 204.5 (mid-4th grade reading level), while the mean NWEA scaled score on the post-test was 207.3 (end of 4th grade reading level).

On average, students gained roughly six months in overall reading comprehension in less than one month’s time.

View the Houston Case Study PDF.

El Paso – Improved and Inspired

It’s great to see our mission being realized at school districts across the nation. During a recent implementation in the El Paso Independent School District by our subsidiary, Tutors with Computers, 126 students in grades 9-12 were pre-and post-tested using the NWEA – MAPs assessment. The increase in the average score of the whole group was equivalent to an increase in 1.7 grade levels.

Dallas – Scoring Big

Pre- and post- TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) scores on 20 Dallas students who completed a substantial amount of the program before Spring 2008 testing were collected for analysis. The average improvement of the TAKS score was 83.

In a report published by the Dallas Independent School District, our subsidiary Read & Succeed was singled out as one of the largest tutoring providers with the highest passing rates on the math portion of the TAKS test. This indicates that our vocabulary and reading comprehension intervention improves student performance across all subjects, not just reading.

Overview

The Challenge

Fewer than 1 in 5 fifth graders, and less than 50% of eighth graders, are proficient with math facts.

In most cases, students fall behind in mathematics because they have not developed a proper foundation with basic number sense. Without an intuitive grasp of basic number operations, these students are unprepared to critically think and solve real world problems. As these students progress through the grades, their lack of a foundation prevents them from learning math as they get older. As a result, it’s typical for 7th or 8th grade students to be doing math at a 3rd grade level.

Our Solution

MathResults focuses on precisely the problem areas that are most important.

MathResults, our web-based software program, helps students improve at math through math practice. MathResults teaches simple and complex math skills from elementary school levels up to Algebra I. The proprietary difficulty adaptation algorithms found in MathResults constantly adjust the difficulty level, so that students can grow in proficiency at their own pace.

This program increases achievement by enabling students to take pride in their progress on MathResults. By focusing on the root causes of most efficiency problems—weakness with basic computation skills, like math facts, and a lack of critical understanding of basic concept—MathResults helps teachers to see where their students are struggling the most.

Adaptive Algorithms

With MathResults, the program adapts to increase in difficulty based on each student’s proficiency rating. Proficiency is gauged by measuring accuracy and speed. To get the best reading of personal mastery, MathResults introduces a time limit, randomly generating problems and using fill-in-the-blank rather than multiple choice. Furthermore, students receive instant feedback, grading (including partial credit) and the ability to see the correct answer for missed questions.

 

Diagnostic Assessment

For teachers, MathResults provides an accurate reading of time on task and provides a diagnostic assessment of the areas in which students need to improve and the areas in which they are already proficient.

 

Game-like Motivational Features

Students can earn points, increase rank and receive trophies for questions answered correctly. Trophies help students to set concrete goals, and each trophy covers a set of critical skills.

Research-Based and in Alignment

MathResults is based on the mastery-learning research pioneered by Benjamin Bloom.

The software is a master-based learning system that breaks math subjects into small, individual skills. This allows students to master the easier skills before progressing to the more difficult skills that build upon them.

After years of research, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) concluded in 2006 that certain mathematical concepts deserve more attention than others. MathResults supports nearly every focal point recommended by the NCTM. In 2008 the National Mathematics Advisory Panel released its recommendations for improving math competence. Their conclusions highlighted the critical importance of automaticity with addition and multiplication math facts and specifically recommended certain basic math skills that must be mastered.

MathResults is designed to help students acquire these critical math skills. Moreover, MathResults is in alignment with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). In the software, teachers and administrators can access the TEKS, along with the topics that align with the respective Texas standards.