The Most Cost Effective Way to Achieve Reading Proficiency
Sing Out and READ’s method of boosting the reading levels of at-risk kids is substantially more cost-effective than the accepted norm.
The consensus among literacy practitioners is that the most reliable way to move a struggling reader up one year, in less than one year’s time, is intensive one-on-one tutoring. A well-trained tutor can achieve the desired result in six months of 4x/week one-hour sessions. Assuming an average hourly cost of $50, the total cost of this approach is $5,000 per child.
The Sing Out and READ Family Literacy Project, or FLiP for short, accomplishes the same reading gain but with much less investment required. The FLiP student uses the cellular-enabled tablet program 5x/week and completes one to two "song lessons" in each session. This works out to about 20-30 minutes per day of program use. This regimen is followed for 3 months, or 12 weeks to be exact. Empirical university-based research over a 5 year period documents a consistent reading improvement of one full year in reading comprehension. The Family Literacy Project cost per child of $500 is 1/10th the cost of one-on-one tutoring. And, the Sing Out and READ FLiP method takes 3 months vs. the 6 months required for tutoring, or 1/2 of the time.
REFERENCESEffectiveness of 1:1 tutoring and Cost-Effectiveness of this approach (Reading Recovery Council of North America): [source]
Cost Effectiveness of Early Ready Programs (Columbia University, Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education): [source]
5-year overview of studies of the effectiveness of the Singing Approach to Reading Remediation (University of South Florida, College of Education): [source]