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Los Angeles Teacher Concurs with Johns Hopkins Study of Recorded Textbooks

Local Educator Agrees Audiobooks are Effective Tool for Students with Learning Disabilities

Los Angeles, CA, January 15, 2003 - For Immediate Release-A Los Angeles area teacher recognizes what he has seen with his own eyes, in a study by The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, that demonstrates the effectiveness of recorded textbooks from Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®) as an accommodation for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

According to the study released in October, students with learning disabilities who used digitally recorded textbooks from the national nonprofit Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic performed better on tests measuring content acquisition than classmates who did not have access to RFB&D's unique accommodation.

"Our experience with RFB&D's recorded textbooks is consistent with the Johns Hopkins findings," says teacher George Giffen from Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles. "I had two students graduate from high school only because they were able to have their economics textbook in audio format. I had another graduate complete two years of community college because he had his textbooks in audio format. Another student who had never been able to read a book in his life fell in love with books when he happened to listen to a very exciting series of audio books. So I am truly not surprised at the findings of the Johns Hopkins Study."se of the Johns Hopkins study was to evaluate the effectiveness of RFB&D's AudioPlus™ digitally recorded textbooks on CD with and without a complementary organizational learning strategy on the acquisition of content - or the process of learning the assigned material - by secondary students with mild cognitive disabilities. Nearly 100 special education students from seven Baltimore (MD) County public high schools participated in the eight-week study that focused on the accessibility of the district's ninth grade American government textbook. Students were assessed by short- and long-term comprehension tests to determine increased content acquisition. A pre-test and a post-test, developed by the textbook test maker, were administered to determine impact on content acquisition during the course of the study.

• Entire classes of students were assigned randomly to one of three groups:
  Students using RFB&D's AudioPlus textbook on CD for 15-to-20 minutes daily.
• Students using RFB&D's AudioPlus textbook on CD for 15-to-20 minutes daily with a specific organizational learning strategy designed to aid comprehension and knowledge by cueing active listening, directing readers' attention to important text and integrating new information with the students' existing knowledge base.
• A control group that engaged in 15-to-20 minutes of reading daily, using a standard textbook with no audio text or specialized instruction.

For each of the two experimental conditions, the comparison with the control condition was statistically significant.

• Students who had access to the textbook on CD had a 38.1 percent increase in their pre- to post-test scores than their peers in the control group.
• Students using both the textbook on CD and the complementary learning strategy had a 39.4 percent increase in their pre- to post-test scores than the control group.

"Educating students with learning disabilities is more challenging at the secondary level when grade-level work demands a heightened focus on comprehension," says Carol Smith, RFB&D-LA Executive Director. "Students are no longer learning to read, they are expected to read to learn. RFB&D's recorded textbooks help bridge the divide between a student's potential and performance."

"The findings are important because they demonstrate that students who need alternative ways to access high content material can experience success," said Michael Rosenberg, professor, department of special education, The Johns Hopkins University. "Also important is this kind of partnership between a national nonprofit organization and a team of university researchers because it enables us to conduct applied research that directly impacts the lives of children."

RFB&D is the nation's educational library for people who cannot effectively read standard print because of visual impairment, dyslexia or other physical disability. RFB&D operates 31 textbook recording studios nationwide, including three facilities in the Los Angeles area. Founded in 1948, RFB&D serves more than 102,000 students from kindergarten to graduate school and beyond with its library of 93,000 accessible titles. More than two-thirds of RFB&D's members have learning disabilities such as dyslexia.

In Los Angeles, more than 2,300 students and 78 schools are using recorded textbooks from RFB&D. The Los Angeles unit of RFB&D is located at 5022 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles with three recording studios in the area. They can be reached by calling 800 732-TEXT and through the Internet at www.rfbd.org/LA.

The Johns Hopkins University was the first research university in the United States. Founded in 1876, its aim was not only to advance students' knowledge, but also to advance human knowledge generally, through discovery and scholarship. The university's emphasis on both learning and research - and on how each complements the other - revolutionized US higher education. Today, Johns Hopkins has ventured from its home in Baltimore to countries throughout the world - China, Italy and Singapore, among many others. It remains a world leader in teaching, patient care and discovery.

The authors of The Effects of Audio Texts on the Acquisition of Secondary Content by Students with Mild Disabilities are Elizabeth Boyle, Michael S. Rosenberg and Vincent Connelly at The Johns Hopkins University, and Shari Gallin Washburn, Loring Brinckerhoff and Manju Banerjee at RFB&D.

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