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Need and Impact

Students in Tarrant County, regardless of learning difference and financial ability, will be successful in school, relationships, and the community, given the right opportunities and instructional support.

Our goal is to share the results of our research and evaluation with the community in order to provide all students and educators of Tarrant County the best opportunities to succeed in the classroom, therefore providing better long-term outcomes.

VIEW OUR IMPACT REPORT

The Urgent Need

National, state, and county statistics point to an urgent need for our services to help students with learning differences avoid catastrophic consequences.

The National Center for Learning Differences Reports:

  • 1 in 5 students experience learning or attention issues, which include symptoms of dyslexia, slow or inaccurate reading, difficulty with reading comprehension, poor spelling, and/or poor writing skills.

  • One-half of all the students who qualify for special education are classified as having a learning disability.

  • 85 percent of students with a learning disability have a primary learning disability in reading and language processing.

The Consequences:

  • In 2014-2015, students in Texas who are identified with a specific learning disability and other health impairment accounted for 60.4 percent of students with disabilities who received out-of-school suspensions.

  • Without appropriate intervention, 74 percent of children with reading difficulties like dyslexia in third grade will continue to have reading difficulties in high school and beyond.

  • Two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare.

  • It is estimated that nearly 50 percent of the prison population has dyslexia and 70 percent of America’s prison inmates cannot read above a fourth-grade level.

The Urgent Need in Tarrant County

It is estimated that over 78,000 students in Tarrant County struggle with written language disorders. Yet Tarrant County lags behind other major metropolitan areas in Texas with the services available to address the needs of children with learning differences. These students often sit in classrooms without the skills and strategies needed to read and perform confidently, embarrassed by their lack of ability to read, write, and spell as proficiently as their same-age peers.

Our Research

Our research and evaluation efforts focus on measuring how our students are progressing in academics, self-confidence, self-advocacy skills, and post-graduation outcomes using student learning profiles and specialized curriculum.

Additionally, teaching modalities in key classrooms are being researched and evaluated for effectiveness to share best teaching practices for students with learning differences within the community.  

Our Impact

For students with learning differences, their families, our staff and other educators, Key School and Training Center’s innovative programs unlock learning success. And we achieve results:

  • National research forecasted that due to Covid-19 disruptions, students would retain only 70 percent of the year’s gain in reading and less than 50 percent of the year’s gain in math. Yet returning Key School students retained more than 90 percent of reading and math skills when compared to the previous year.

  • Last year, our dyslexia and training program supported 17 educators who impacted over 230 students in the community with daily academic language therapy instruction and this year, we are collaborated with our partner program to train 13 educators.

  • During 2021-2022 Key School and Training Center served 92 students in the traditional program and an additional 97 during the Summer Program. Over 30% of students receive financial aid and this year we have three full-ride scholarship student supported by our donors.

  • Since 2018, Key School graduates have been accepted at 21 different educational institutions. 100% of 2021 graduates from Key School are currently attending higher educational institutions. The Class of 2022 has a 100% acceptance rate at the colleges of their choice.

  • Over $340,200 in college scholarships have been awarded to date from the Class of 2022 graduating class of 6 students.