EPS Reading Assistant, the first AI-driven tutor, is designed to provide students with adaptive reading practice and intervention, delivering rapid results. Using voice-recognition technology, students read out loud while an avatar assesses and delivers real-time personalized feedback and micro-interventions. Utilizing its features, students experience effective reading practice with customized, in-the-moment feedback to enhance their literacy growth. The technology underpinning Reading Assistant was built in partnership with top institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, and The University of Texas-Health Science Center at Houston.
Additionally, Reading Assistant generates real-time whole class and individual student reports. This valuable data saves teachers over 90 hours across the school year by automating early literacy assessment, practice with feedback, and dyslexia screening, which identifies students at risk of dyslexia as early identification is key. The comprehensive screening process reliably identifies students at substantial risk, with the dyslexia screener having over a 99% accuracy rate for identifying students at risk for dyslexia.
By capturing these key data points, educators gain valuable insights into each student’s reading skill progress and mastery. When implemented with fidelity, this tool becomes a powerful accelerator for reading outcomes.
Formats/platforms used:
Digital-Clever, ClassLink
Primary website URL:
https://www.epslearning.com/products/eps-reading-assistant
Problem solved:
What we know now from research is that learning to read is not a natural act for humans. Our brains aren’t wired for it, and they must literally be rewired to learn to read. Neuroscientists have made breakthrough discoveries that demonstrate how this rewiring works, and it’s clear that it requires two essential things to happen... explicit instruction and LOTS of practice. That’s where Reading Assistant comes in – the assessment tool helps educators understand what type of explicit instruction is required, and the practice mode allows kids to practice reading out loud.
During reading practice sessions, Reading Assistant provides personalized tutoring with micro-interventions, offering small coaching moments to students. Feedback is continuously adjusted based on the type and frequency of student errors. By continuously assessing mastery every time a child reads, Reading Assistant will equip educators with insight into a child’s reading abilities with easy-to-interpret reports, running records and recordings of every story that student reads with the tutor.
Reading Assistant provides students with one-on-one support connecting kids with text at the just-right-level and providing the support they need to bolster skills based on areas they needed help with while reading out loud. This personalized attention is particularly valuable, especially when considering the time constraints teachers face in providing individualized feedback to each and every student.
Grade/age range:
Grades K-8
Core, supplemental, special needs?
Supplemental, Special Needs (Dyslexia)
Subject or topic:
Literacy
Lesson time needed:
10 minutes 3x per week.
Pricing model:
Practice & Assessment: $20
Assessment Only: $8
Additional services:
As a part of the purchase, educators are provided ongoing support from our Customer Success team. This team can help with reviewing usage and guidance on reporting. Initial training on the program is also provide through asynchronistic Reading Assistant courses. These are included with a purchase of the program. There is an option for live trainings for the program upon request. The training will primarily focus on program navigation, best practices, and reporting. Courses are hosted on a Learning Management System and offers videos, articles, and quizzes to check for the educator's understanding.
What makes EPS Reading Assistant unique?
EPS Reading Assistant is an AI-powered reading tutor that provides personalized reading practice and in-the-moment intervention grounded in the science of reading. It rapidly accelerates reading gains for students, and it saves teachers both time and energy. It’s easy to implement and easy to train.
Reading Assistant includes a 15-minute online early literacy assessment that serves as a placement test for each child and functions as a dyslexia screener, a universal screener, a diagnostic, and a benchmark assessment.
Reading Assistant listens as a student reads out loud at their just-right-level and the online system continually adapts to deliver remediation or acceleration. Reading Assistant keeps students actively engaged rather than passively sitting in front of a screen because it provides immediate 1-on-1, interactive tutoring to address exactly what the student needs right when they need it.
Every reading practice session gives educators unparalleled insight into each student’s skill progress and mastery, along with additional resources they can use to provide support. Research shows that students who read with Reading Assistant every week make accelerated reading gains.
Characteristics:
The core Reading Assistant experience is designed in accordance with Universal Design for Learning principles. Reading Assistant delivers an interactive reading representation where the avatar provides multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression.
Throughout the program, multiple means of engagement are provided. For instance, in skills practice mode, students have the opportunity to select the story they wish to work on with Reading Assistant, granting them choice and autonomy. Additionally, Reading Assistant offers regular feedback to students regarding their goals and objectives. Each time a student logs in, Reading Assistant provides updates on progress and communicates achievements through a badging system.
Reading Assistant provides multiple means of representation. For instance, its Cognate micro-intervention fosters cross-linguistic understanding by connecting Spanish to English, displaying the Spanish cognate for the English word to the student. Additionally, Reading Assistant supports students with comprehension by guiding them through a dialogue-based exploration of the ideas and relationships in the story following oral reading.
Reading Assistant offers multiple means of action and expression. For instance, it aids students in developing reading fluency by offering graduated levels of support. Beginning readers engage with Reading Assistant in foundational skill-building mode, where they receive explicit instruction in skills followed by opportunities to practice. Advanced readers, on the other hand, utilize Reading Assistant to enhance comprehension skills through dialogue-based exploration of story ideas and relationships.
Reading Assistant offers an enhanced ability to monitor progress by collecting data on every interaction between the student and the AI tutor. If students engage with Reading Assistant daily, data is collected and updated accordingly. This data includes information on usage, fluency, vocabulary size, and comprehension, as well as identification of specific skill gaps, down to the phoneme level.
Here's what users are saying:
"They actually beg me to get on it, like, "Can I get on Reading Assistant next?"
--April and Sam, 2nd grade teachers from Columbus, Ohio
"Doing what Reading Assistant does on a daily basis, you just can't get that in any other thing that we do."
--Garry, Senior Director of Curriculum & Instruction at McKinney ISD
“My teachers LOVE and embrace Reading Assistant and the data and growth shows the impact. Teachers use it daily as a station during their guided reading time. The students where we saw the most growth were the classrooms that were using it every day.”
--Mindy, K-2 Early Literacy Specialist, Dougherty County School System
