Palmetto Achievement Center for Excellence (PACE) Academy began as a result of one family’s struggle. Former public high school teacher and founding director of PACE Academy, Melissa Rabon, and her family know first-hand what it’s like to have a student with dyslexia who struggles to succeed in a traditional setting. After just 4 weeks of tutoring from a trained Orton-Gillingham tutor, her son made more progress in reading than he’d made in four years of special education in a traditional school setting. She knew that she had to do something different to help her son and other students like him, so she and her family set out on a journey that led to the founding of PACE Academy.
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) defines dyslexia as a neurobiological, language-based reading disability caused by different wiring of the brain with a cluster of symptoms that can affect a person’s ability to read, write, spell, and/or pronounce words but has no connection to a person’s intelligence level. Dyslexia symptoms occur on a spectrum and are dependent upon the severity of the condition and the effectiveness of the instruction provided. Some people may struggle to connect letters to sounds and have extreme difficulty reading and spelling, while others may learn early reading and spelling skills but experience problems later on when they are faced with more complex language tasks such as grammar and essay writing. Even with these struggles, people with dyslexia are considered “out-of-the-box” thinkers and have been found to be leaders in business, art, science, technology, and other industries.
Although people with dyslexia have average to above-average intelligence, they continuously struggle academically in traditional educational settings because these programs are not set up to meet the specific needs of children with dyslexia. Unfortunately, according to the IDA, popularly employed reading approaches, such as Guided Reading or Balanced Literacy, are not effective for struggling readers and are especially ineffective for students with dyslexia because they do not focus on the decoding skills these students need to succeed in reading. Research has continuously proven that a structured, sequential, multisensory, evidence-based literacy programs, based on the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach, implemented with fidelity by well-trained teachers and support staff is the most effective approach to teach reading.
Located in Columbia, S.C., PACE opened its doors in the fall of 2021, during a global pandemic, to 192 students in grades 2 – 7 with the mission to ensure all students master foundational reading skills along with South Carolina College and Career-Ready Standards to reach their full potential both in and out of the classroom. In the fall of 2022, PACE expanded its enrollment to 236 students in grades 2 – 8 with 67% of students having a documented disability. While most of the students and staff are from the Midlands of South Carolina, a number of families and staff have relocated from across the state and the country specifically for the specialized instruction that PACE offers.
As part of the unique educational approach at PACE Academy, all students attend an ACE (Academic Core Enrichment) class every day for 30-45 minutes. During this ACE time, students are placed in groups based on their lowest developed literacy skills, not their age or grade. Students receive instruction using a Structured Literacy approach which includes Project Read (Language Circle Enterprises) and other Orton-Gillingham based instruction methods.
Students also participate in four related arts programs throughout the school year: Physical Education, Music Education, Art Education, and American Sign Language. General education teachers even incorporate American Sign Language in their reading lessons to add another multisensory element to the learning environment.
Even though PACE is classified as an Alternative Education Campus (AEC), with more than 60% of students having documented disabilities, students at PACE learn the same state standards and participate in the same state-wide testing as students in traditional public schools. However, research shows that students with dyslexia do not test well on standardized tests. Their true knowledge and ability are not generally reflected in state test scores like SC Ready and SC PASS. Therefore, all students at PACE Academy are progress monitored with Measure of Academic Progress (MAP), easyCBM fluency, and Project Read assessments a minimum of three times each school year. This information allows the education team at PACE determine how well students are closing their reading gaps.
During the first year of operation, PACE saw an increase in average reading fluency, phonemic awareness, and decoding skills in all grade levels. In fact, students increased their fluency skills by 19%, increased their phonemic awareness skills by 25%, and increased decoding skills by an average of 49% with only 7 months of Orton-Gillingham instruction. In the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) Math test, 14% of students showed regression while 86% of students showed overall growth from Fall of 2021 to Spring of 2022. Students increased their Math Mean RIT Score from 186.6 to 194.2 with 44% of students meeting their growth projection goals. In the MAP Reading test, 24% of students showed regression while 76% of students showed overall growth from Fall of 2021 to Spring of 2022. Students increased their Reading Mean RIT Score from 182.6 to 188.8 with 41% of students meeting their growth projection goals.
PACE Academy understands that, even though many students have struggled in traditional school settings because of dyslexia and other reading disabilities, when they are given the right tools, every student can and will experience success. PACE respects the unique talents each student brings and pledges to work tirelessly to ensure that they achieve the academic, technical, and social skills necessary to accomplish their future educational and career goals. Through a supportive and motivational environment emphasized by individualized, systematic, sequential, multi-sensory based instruction, PACE Academy will #SetThePACE for struggling readers in the Midlands of South Carolina.
