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The Intelligent Tutoring System for Incarcerated Adult Basic Education Students

Incarcerated students are complex.  They typically dropped out of school in 9^th or 10^th grade, but function on average at about a 4^th grade level equivalent.  Some are functioning as low as Kindergarten.  In addition, an estimate of up to 50% of them are students with special needs, many with dyslexia.  They may average about 4^th grade, but they attended classes for ten years, and actually know some content from higher grade levels.  They also have life skills, so they are much more complex than your average 4^th grade student. 

The Intelligent Tutoring System is designed differently from most software in order to serve these students’ needs wherever they may fall in a continuum from Kindergarten to early High School grade levels, and not require them to repeat lessons in content they already know.  Instruction is efficient and quick.  Students make two years of learning gains on average per year of use.  (Click here for NCCD Study) 

The Research and Data Analysis office for the Florida Department of Corrections, among other research organizations, repeatedly confirms that for each grade level improvement in his education that is achieved by an inmate, recidivism declines by 3% over the three years post release.  Over longer periods, it rises to as much as 75% in some states. New Century students on average can raise their proficiency from 4^th grade to tenth grade in three years and reduce their average recidivism by 18% from the average of approximately 50% to 32% – a 36% reduction in recidivism.  The men are better off for not returning to prison, their communities have less crime, and the tax payer is not paying to warehouse another returning inmate.”

The Intelligent Tutoring System is a heavily researched and highly adaptive, individualized instructional program that fills deep skill gaps in English/Language Arts & math among the incarcerated  and accelerates learning.

“Special Noah Text® Lessons for Students with Dyslexia”

“HALLELUJAH!, THE FAITH AND CHARACTER DORM JUST HAD TWO MORE PASS THE GED TEST.  IT HAS BEEN WORKING AND MOST OF THE INMATES ARE PASSING.”  – FAITH LIBURD, LOWELL C I

The Intelligent Tutoring System is designed as one continuum of instruction from Kindergarten to early High School with consistency in pedagogy, assessment and reporting, in order to address these more complex students wherever they may need help in this broad spectrum of grade levels.  Moreover, New Century makes it easy for teachers and inmate peer facilitators to individualize and deliver efficient instruction for rapid gains by combining essential features:

Benefits of New Century’s Intelligent Tutoring System and individualized method of instruction are:
· The Intelligent Tutoring System assigns instruction as proximate to student mastery of content as possible to assure he or she is successful when they take that next lesson.
· The software alerts the teacher when individualized attention and support is needed by a student and even provides a framework for the teacher to do so.
· Students learn the self-discipline needed to motivate themselves and to keep their progress on target.

Adaptive Diagnostics
· Tests that adapt the questions to your student’s answers to “drill down” and identify their specific needs.
· Reports proficiency across standards based skills in Reading, Language Arts and Math covering grades Kindergarten through Early High School, including Algebra 1.

Adaptive Lesson Paths: Adds remedial instruction on demand to help struggling students master subjects.
· Correlates to Common Core State Standards.
· Accelerates quick learners through the lesson path
· Embeds tests regularly to assure mastery of content

Individualized Lessons that Teach New Skills Like a Tutor
· Adds instruction and examples within lessons for students who need them
· Rapidly advances students who grasp concepts quickly to the end of the lesson

Special Noah Text® Lessons to Help Those with Dyslexia and Other Struggling Readers.
· Noah Text is a phonologically scaffolded text that helps students decode more complex words, so they spend less cognitive effort on decoding and are more able to understand and appreciating what they are reading.  Students often read their first chapter books on Noah Text and some will bridge themselves to reading plain text. For more on Noah Text®, click here.

Other Advantages of the Intelligent Tutoring System
· 3 hours of training and your teachers can implement the software.
· Age-neutral content for older students struggling with lower elementary-level skills
· Incentive system to recognize and award students for progress milestones
· The software can be streamed to your site or loaded on a local area network with no internet connection
· Results with incarcerated students confirmed in independent study

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