Oakland Unified School District has partnered with Scientific Learning Corp. to implement two educational software programs designed to help students accelerate their acquisition of cognitive, language, and reading skills essential for learning success. Based on more than 30 years of research, the Fast ForWord(R) program from Scientific Learning accelerates learning for students across a wide spectrum of ages and abilities -- including those working at, above or below grade level -- by applying proven research on how the brain learns.

By building cognitive skills in the areas of memory, attention, processing, and sequencing, learners can realize achievement gains of up to two years in as little as three months. The Reading Assistant program combines advanced speech recognition technology with research-based reading instruction to help students strengthen their reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.