Page 2 - NJ System 44 for Special Education

Transforming the lives of students with special needs
Caleb Yamaguchi
San Jose, California
Determined to not let his learning disability hold him back, Caleb now reads grade-level texts.
Two years ago, at the beginning of his fourth- grade year, Caleb Yamaguchi struggled
with many of the building blocks of reading (decoding, sound-symbol connections, and phonics) because of a learning disability that added to the challenge of learning to read.
After two years in reading intervention programs, rst System 44 and then READ 180, Caleb has quickly improved his reading skills, gaining the equivalent of three grade levels in his reading ability. A crowning achievement for him was reading Hatchet, a grade-level text, along with the rest of his classmates. “It was hard, but I had to read it on my own,” he said.
His teacher says he is now a leader in the classroom and on the football eld, where he dreams of becoming an NFL star.
Grade–Level Growth
Increased the equivalent of three grade levels in reading ability
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