Neuroscientific Studies

Step to Success Community Learning Center has been providing tutoring services to the community since 2001 and has been a Designated Service Provider for the Colorado Department of Education since 2002.  Our core mission is to teach foundational skills and concepts aligned with national and state standards through scientifically proven, multisensory methods that  work for all learning styles.  By providing the Academic Foundation that all students need they become the life long learners we all want for our society.  We have worked in partnership with schools and communities to supplement their efforts of increasing student achievement.  Over the years we have averaged two year gains for students in 30 sessions or less.  We have done this by using scientifically proven instruction methods and standards-based curriculum along with highly qualified and motivating teachers.

Step to Success recently was ranked top in reading achievement as compared to the "control group" by the OMNI Evaluation Group who provided their finding to the Colorado Dept. of Education.   Our number one ranking was due to fact that we provide small group tutoring, multisensory instruction by highly qualified teachers and hands-on science activities that keep students in the "Learning Zone."

A very important component of our tutoring programs is our selection of courseware and curriculum.  Step to Success has chosen to use the Lexia Reading Systems and Let's Go Learn Math and Reading Program.

The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse finds Lexia Reading to be effective, meeting the WWC Research Standards.  Described by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences as "a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education,"  the WWC is on of the most respected guides to effectiveness for instructional programs, products, practices and policies; giving educators the tools to make informed decisions.

Out of 171 beginning reading programs, with more than 890 different research studies submitted, Lexia is one of only 10 programs to meet evidence standards as defined by the WWC and show positive effects for beginning readers.

The report of the National Reading Panel (NRP) states that evidence shows that teaching a combination of reading comprehension techniques and systematic phonic instruction provides the highest effectiveness for reading achievement.  By using Lexia for our beginning or struggling readers and Let's Go Learn for readers who have gaps in their comprehension skills Step to Success provides the most effective learning instruction to their students.

Lexia uses the Systematic Synthetic Phonics instruction as described in the NRP.  More over, Lexia was in the top 10 most effective reading programs for IEP, Dyslexia and At Risk students.

Unique Math  Let's Go Learn

Unique Math brings together comprehensive math skills assessment with differentiated instruction, all administered in an interactive, online learning environment. Let's Go Learn's Diagnostic Online Math Assessment (DOMA) Basic Math Skills first performs a detailed assessment of each student's basic math abilities across multiple benchmarks. After the initial assessment, the program transitions the student into interactive tutorials and activities that improve essential math skills needed for success. Unique Math is aligned with both NCTM and state standards.

How it Works

The first step to successfully addressing individual students' learning is accurate assessment of their current understanding of specific material. DOMA Basic Math Skills assesses three primary areas: number skills, fractions, and measurement skills. The assessment's advanced adaptive features reduce the total assessment time, increase the diagnostic nature of the program, and maximize the useful information teachers receive. Immediately after the assessment, students who qualify for instruction are automatically transitioned into powerful online math lessons.

• Individual math profiles generated for each student identify for teachers specific math constructs in need of targeted instruction.
• Supplemental instruction is automatic and tailored to each student.
• Students are placed into three strands of instruction based on need: Numbers and Operations, Fractions, and Measurement.

The targeted lessons featured in Unique Math use online versions of familiar math manipulatives and models to help students understand lessons and apply their learning to real-world problem solving. The Numbers and Operations track helps students gain number sense through an understanding of operations and computations, including numbers' relationships to one another. The Fractions track helps students develop fraction knowledge, including computation using fractions and mixed numbers.  Unique Math's Measurement track helps students understand measurement attributes of objects and their units, systems, tools, and processes of measurement