It is our belief that great educational technology can decrease the literacy gap and cater to the needs of each student, even when resources are scarce. Kurzweil 3000-firefly, a web-based literacy support program, provides real solutions for students who struggle to read fluently or who lack the reading skills necessary to achieve rigorous academic standards.
The Iowa Text Reader Longitudinal Study revealed that with Kurzweil 3000-firefly, students could access twice the amount of materials in the same amount of time. In addition to reading more content, comprehension levels improved. Specifically, reading increased from a 6.9 to 8.9 grade level over the course of the study, comprehension scores for higher-level questions that required inference increased by 6% versus a 6% drop in the same question type with paper-based reading. In addition, fact-based comprehension held steady with computer supported reading, while dropping 17% for students who weren't using Kurzweil 3000-firefly.