Investing in teachers is what students need most.

Program Outcomes

Greater confidence. Practical tools. Continued learning.

Impact data represents programming beginning in January 2024.

132

Teachers trained

3,591

Hours of teacher training

57

Schools served

5,330

Students impacted

100%

Reported increased confidence across all three measures.

Classmates Literacy Foundation helps educators build confidence in supporting readers through structured literacy training.

Post-training survey of 33 educators.

Across each measure, 94% reported a moderate or significant increase, including 70% who reported a significant increase.

  • In our post-training survey of 33 educators:

    • 100% reported increased confidence delivering structured literacy instruction.

    • 100% reported increased confidence applying structured literacy strategies with students right away.

    • 100% reported increased confidence identifying and supporting striving readers, including students with dyslexia or other learning differences.

    Across each measure, 94% reported a moderate or significant increase, including 70% who reported a significant increase.

  • Educators want to keep learning.

    64% said Yes to participating in Advanced structured literacy training if a scholarship opportunity becomes available.

    Another 33% selected Maybe and wanted more information—meaning 97% selected Yes or Maybe.

  • “I feel so prepared to help struggling readers.”

    “I'm most excited about it because it seems completely doable in a normal school day. It's highly user friendly.”

    “I left the training with the knowledge that I had been missing in my career and that I desperately needed to become a better teacher.”

    “This training helped me synthesize my prior learning and I learned new things as well!”

  • Some educators had already begun using the strategies and described encouraging changes:

    “I had a student who seemed so bored and disengaged before Slant. Now, he is much more focused, and smiling more often while learning to read.”

    “They love the hands on stuff and are more willing to answer”

Classmates Literacy Foundation proudly provides structured literacy training to teachers in Illinois and Wisconsin at low or no cost through our partnership with Slant System™ - an Orton-Gillingham, phonics based, multimodal professional development program. Structured literacy is the gold standard in literacy instruction for ALL students, and essential for students with reading difficulties or dyslexia which affect 1 in5.

Slant System™ is accredited by the International Dyslexia Association and endorsed by the Center for Effective Reading Instruction.

Research and Findings

It was noted through research and supported by the evidence of a 2023 efficacy review, conducted by LXD Research, that after intervention using Slant System™, the following results were observed:

  • All kindergarten students performed above benchmark on aimsweb initial sound fluency subtest after implementing the Slant intervention.

  • The number of students referred for special education assessments decreased.

  • The percentages of first graders who met benchmark expectations on aimsweb subtests increased.

  • Third grade state test scores for these schools improved at a higher rate than the whole district’s progress over two years.

  • By the end of the second full year of Slant implementation all third-grade students met or exceeded the reading benchmarks on the Illinois state test.

  • Students scores on the TOWRE subtests and CTOPP significantly improved over the four years.