Overview.  Turn data into action—and watch your students grow. Making Meaningful Growth is a targeted, 15 hour, professional development course designed to help educators unlock the full potential of progress monitoring using DIBELS 8th Edition. Perfect for special educators, interventionists, and classroom teachers working with students reading below grade level, this course offers a practical, step-by-step framework to track growth, respond to data, and drive real instructional change.

Across six focused modules, you’ll learn how to identify the right progress monitoring tools, accurately interpret student performance, and adjust your teaching to accelerate reading achievement. The course emphasizes how to determine rates of improvement and set realistic, yet ambitious, goals—ensuring every learner makes meaningful progress.

By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped to:

• Explain the role of progress monitoring within a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) and its impact on reading outcomes.

• Differentiate between summative and criterion-based assessments to choose the right tool for each student’s needs.

• Use DIBELS 8th Edition to monitor skills in reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.

• Set clear, attainable growth targets using benchmark data and aimlines.

• Interpret students' rates of improvement and adjust instruction using high-leverage, research-based strategies.

• Understand referral guidance aligned with the Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines.

Course Outline 

Module 1: Introduction to Progress Monitoring

Module 2: Seamlessly Embedding Assessment Into Weekly Instruction

Module 3: Measuring Students' Ability to Generalize their Literacy Skills Using DIBELS 8th Assessment

Module 4: The Purpose and Benefits of Creating Aimlines to Set Goals and Track Growth

Module 5: Interpreting Progress Monitoring Data to Adjust and Drive Instruction

Module 6: Application to Case Study

Graduate Credit: One graduate credit is available for an additional fee of $75. In order to receive graduate credit in lieu of professional development points, participants must complete all coursework within 6 months of enrollment. Graduate coursework includes the completion of an essay assignment (approximately 5 pages). 

Whether you're new to DIBELS or looking to sharpen your data-informed instruction, this course gives you the tools and confidence to monitor progress with purpose—and make every data point count.

Overview. Unlock the power of evidence-based literacy instruction with The Science of Reading Featuring Structured Literacy Small Group Instruction for K–2. This dynamic, research-driven course is designed specifically for K–2 educators seeking to elevate their teaching practice and help every young reader thrive.

Grounded in the latest findings from education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, this course equips educators with a deep understanding of how children learn to read—and how to reach them with effective, differentiated instruction. You’ll gain practical strategies for planning and delivering small group lessons that align with each child’s developmental stage and literacy needs.

Throughout the course, you'll explore the neuroscience of reading, master the core components of Structured Literacy, and learn how to interpret and use early literacy data to drive instruction. With a strong focus on small group teaching, this course provides a hands-on framework to help you confidently support students in building accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. 

Objectives. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

• Identify the stages of reading development and apply this knowledge in your instructional planning.
• Integrate the essential components of reading instruction from the National Reading Panel into your daily ELA practice.
• Use screening data to pinpoint at-risk readers and group students by targeted instructional needs.
• Design and implement structured small group lessons tailored to build specific reading skills.
• Deliver developmentally appropriate instruction grounded in the principles of Structured Literacy.
  

Lesson Components. Each structured literacy routine features 12 activities that can be used interchangeably to teach phonemic awareness, trick words, letter/sound, phonics skills, single word reading, vocabulary, fluency, syntax and comprehension. 

Access to Pre-Planned Lessons. Participants will receive 6 months of access to their preferred Decoding Duo manual, which provides pre-planned structured literacy routines that accompany decodable texts.  

Course Outline

Module 1 - Using the  Neuroscience of Reading to Maximize Small Group Instruction

Modules 2 - Unpacking the Elements of  Structured Literacy Routines 

Module 3 - Utilizing Screening and Benchmark Data to Plan Targeted Small Group Instruction

Module 4 -  Delivering Effective Structured Literacy Lessons with a Focus on Building Accuracy Skills

Module 5 -  Delivering Effective Structured Literacy Lessons with a Focus on Building Fluency Skills

Module 6 -  Planning Your Own Structured Literacy Routines Using a Backwards Approach.

Graduate Credit: One graduate credit is available for an additional fee of $75. In order to receive graduate credit in lieu of professional development points, participants must complete all coursework within 6 months of enrollment. Graduate coursework includes the completion of an essay assignment (approximately 5 pages). 

Overview. This 15 hour (PDP) provides educators with a systematic lesson plan for teaching students to read multisyllabic words with common prefixes and suffixes. 

Course Outline

Module 1 - The Science of Reading and Use of Data to Plan Small Group Targeted Instruction 

Modules 2 - Elements of Structured Literacy Focus on Advanced Word Work, Vocabulary, and Morphology 

Module 3 - Elements of Structured Literacy Focus on Syntax and Spelling 

Module 4 -  Building Background Knowledge 

Module 5 -  Planning a Custom Structured Literacy Routine

Module 6 - Delivering Elements of a Structured Literacy Lesson 

Graduate Credit: One graduate credit is available for an additional fee of $75. In order to receive graduate credit in lieu of professional development points, participants must complete all coursework within 6 months of enrollment. Graduate coursework includes the completion of an essay assignment (approximately 5 pages). 

Overview. The 15 hr (PDP) course is designed for educators who are seeking information about how to utilize evidence-based practices to support struggling readers including students with dyslexia.

Rather than a one-size fits all model, research now suggests that students with dyslexia benefit from targeted instruction that matches their "subtype."  This course will highlight the four common subtypes of dyslexic students including the co-occurrence of attentional weaknesses, naming speed subtypes and double deficits, and related best practices for instruction. 

Course Outline

Module 1 - Connecting the Science of Reading to Assessment and Instruction

Module 2 - Using a Preventative Framework: The Importance of Early Screening for Risk of Dyslexia and Overall MTSS Model in Ensuring Reading Achievement

Module 3 - Unpacking the Latest Research on Word Recognition: Understanding the Process of Orthographic Mapping

Module 4 - Defining Dyslexia and Planning Instruction for Common Subtypes Including Co-Occurring Working Memory Weaknesses, Naming Speed Subtype and Double-Deficit Subtype. 

Module 5 - Understanding the Subtypes of Dyslexia Through Case Studies. 

Module 6 - Utilizing Explicit Instruction Delivery Strategies to Maximize Achievement. 

Graduate Credit: One graduate credit is available for an additional fee of $75. In order to receive graduate credit in lieu of professional development points, participants must complete all coursework within 6 months of enrollment. Graduate coursework includes the completion of an essay assignment (approximately 5 pages). 

Overview. RAVE-O (Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary, Engagement - Orthography) is the first comprehensive research and evidence-based approach to building reading fluency for struggling 2nd - 4th graders.

The RAVE-O course is designed for educators who support struggling readers and those with dyslexia including, reading specialists, classroom teachers, special educators, and speech and language pathologists.

This course provides a complete training in the administration of the original RAVE-O program which was published and distributed by Voyager Sopris from 2008 - 2023

Original RAVE-O materials are no longer sold by Voyager Sopris and it is recommended that training attendees have access to the curricula materials.

By the completion of the course, participants will be prepared to teach RAVE-O both in-person and online. The program goes beyond repeated reading to help students develop their automaticity in all aspects of word knowledge, integrating phonics, vocabulary, parts of speech, and morphology. 

RAVE-O is the only known structured literacy approach for students with Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) weaknesses, and now has a virtual version of the curriculum for remote instruction.