{"id":1961,"date":"2023-02-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:39:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T06:39:59","slug":"enhance-literacy-development-with-reading-progress-and-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/education\/blog\/2023\/02\/enhance-literacy-development-with-reading-progress-and-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhance literacy development with Reading Progress and Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Literacy has long been a strong predictor<\/a> of students\u2019 future career paths, financial stability, and overall health. Unfortunately, reading achievement scores in the United States have declined \u201csignificantly\u201d, according to the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)<\/a> reading assessment. Educators strive to meet the literacy needs of all learners and accelerate learning, but often lack the time and resources to collect and analyze literacy data. This data is necessary for educators to better inform instruction and provide intentional supports. Microsoft\u2019s Learning Accelerator suite of tools provides schools with the solutions and educational expertise they need to positively impact academic, social, and emotional growth for all learners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft Reading Progress<\/a> and Reading Coach<\/a>, solutions within Microsoft\u2019s Learning Accelerator suite of tools<\/a>, reduce educator barriers in assessing and supporting student fluency. These tools save educators\u2019 time, provide actionable and timely data, and give useful insights for student learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the YouTube video<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Saving educators\u2019 time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reading fluency assessments often require educators to spend a large portion of instructional time listening to students read individually. While the data collected during these sessions is valuable, Microsoft\u2019s Reading Progress allows educators to continue instructing while students complete recorded fluency passages independently. This allows educators to do fluency checks more frequently, with less classroom disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educators assign passages to individuals or groups of students based on reading level or interest by uploading their own passages or using texts from ReadWorks. Students then simply select the Assignment tab to begin their recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading Progress also makes analyzing student fluency recordings quicker and simpler by auto-detecting reading errors, calculating correct words per minute, and tabulating accuracy rates. Educators can turn off auto-detect or adjust the pronunciation sensitivity to better meet the speech and language needs of individual learners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reading progress<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading Progress\u2019s inclusive design is also able to auto-detect over 67 languages and locales. This allows educators to assess reading fluency in a student\u2019s native language as well as English to gain a more holistic view of the student\u2019s literacy needs and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reading Progress takes all the nerves out of my student\u2019s fluency checks. They are comfortable with its approach and I am able to collect data quicker and more efficiently than ever before. Now, I can devote more time to differentiated instruction rather than individualized assessments.\u201d <\/p>\nJoe Merrill, Educator at Lake Park Elementary, Florida<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Providing actionable and timely data and feedback<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another barrier educators encounter when supporting each students\u2019 unique literacy needs is ensuring they have access to actionable and timely data and feedback. Using Reading Coach, learners and educators can track their reading progress and receive feedback immediately following their recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Educators can fully customize the report that is shown to learners and return the passage back to students for revision after they have reviewed their recording. This allows students to learn from feedback and improve their fluency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Reading Coach is enabled after a Reading Progress assignment, students are given the opportunity to practice five words before completion. Students listen to the word, stretch the word, and view a picture of the word before recording. Reading Coach then provides students with instant feedback on the pronunciation of the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out new updates to Reading Progress and get introduced to Reading Coach:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the YouTube video<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Using Insights to inform student learning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gaining clarity on the specific learning needs of students can also be a challenge for educators. Reading Progress provides educators with actionable insights into their students\u2019 reading progress at both a class and individual student level. The Insights tab in Teams provides staff with a snapshot of the following information:<\/p>\n\n\n\n