Release date: February 26, 2024
This is part two of my conversation with Joe Lockavitch in which Joe shares his insights on helping students read and his general passion for education. If you have not heard part one, I recommend navigating to the previous episode.
Like most everything in the education sector, Joe’s Failure Free Reading Program has proponents and detractors. Proponents say that they have seen students progress rapidly using the Failure Free Reading Program. Detractors point to a lack of empirical evidence for its effectiveness (according to the What Works Clearinghouse, the single rigorous evaluation of Failure Free Reading found moderate positive effects on comprehension), and they say that it is not easy to integrate into existing curricula. Regarding the latter, I imagine Joe thinks that is part of the point because he is fond of stating that, the “real enemy” of students with chronic reading challenges is the existing instructional approach. More information about Joe and his Failure Free Reading Program is below.
Biography of Joe Lockavitch
Dr. Joe Lockavitch, a former classroom teacher, school psychologist, university professor, special education director, applied reading researcher, is the author and developer of: The Failure Free Reading Program, Don’t Close the Book on Your Not-Yet Readers, Joseph’s Readers Talking Software for Non-Readers, Verbal Master-An Accelerated Vocabulary Program, Life Skills – A School to Career Language Literacy Intervention and The Test of Lateral Awareness and Directionality.
A noted speaker who is listed in Outstanding Teachers in Exceptional Education, Who’s Who in American Education and Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, Dr. Joe has spent the past thirty years training tens of thousands of teachers, parents, and administrators across the nation on how to meet the unique needs of students with chronic reading failure – nonreaders included.
Dr. Joe has been featured on the PBS NewsHour and mentioned on national radio shows such as: Tom Joyner, Dr. Laura, Mike Gallegher and Michael Medvid. Dr. Lockavitch holds a Doctor of Education from Boston University and a Master of Science in Special Education from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut. He is currently the President of Failure Free Reading - an educational publishing and software development firm housed in Concord, North Carolina.
Failure Free Reading which has over two million hours of direct student instruction – both in- person and through distance learning – has been used by thousands of teachers to serve tens of thousands of students in schools across the nation. His current client list includes New York City, Washington DC, Broward County, Florida, Niagara Falls, NY, Laredo, Tx, Bristol, TN and many more. For over 30 years, Dr. Joe has been helping school districts and parents across the nation turn their nonreaders into readers - quickly, easily and within budget. Dr. Joe specializes in training teachers, parents, and volunteers in accelerating the vocabulary, comprehension, expressive fluency, and confidence of chronically failing students of all ages.
Dr. Joe’s philosophy is quite simple: we are underestimating the reading potential of chronically failing students. The enemy is not the student, parent, teacher, or administrator. The real enemy is the instructional approach and accompanying materials. Change that approach and you will change the performance outcomes.
Links
Failure Free Reading Program
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