San Diego Teacher Helps To Solve Rwandan Education Dilemma

Now that Rwanda has adopted English as its official language for teaching, it has a problem. Nearly all Rwandan teachers speak limited English. So what can they do? A 68-year-old San Diego teacher has found the answer: SRA/McGraw-Hill's Direct Instruction curricula. And she's traveled to Rwanda to share it with government officials and teachers.

Angelica Fazio, who teaches at Julian Charter School, has returned from a trip to Rwanda in which she helped teachers in Rwandan orphanage schools learn to use Direct Instruction curricula in English.

Mrs. Fazio said, "I first got involved in the orphan schools through my son's Uganda Ministry. I had taken my soon-to-be four-year-old granddaughter to visit the director of established orphanages in Uganda, Rwanda, and India. My granddaughter was reading with Reading Mastery, a Direct Instruction program, and the director was so amazed that she asked me to go to her orphanages and train the teachers to use the method we had used to teach my granddaughter to read."

Not only has she conducted professional development for teachers, she has also presented the idea to top education officials in the Rwandan government, who liked it. Because of its scripted nature, Direct Instruction can bridge the gap for teachers who are just learning English themselves.

The most widely spoken languages in Rwanda are currently Kinyarwanda (a native dialect), French and English. An estimated 97 percent of Rwandan teachers have limited or no English language experience, yet Rwanda adopted English as the official language for instruction in October 2008.

Mrs. Fazio contacted publisher SRA/McGraw-Hill, which provided several sets of its Direct Instruction reading intervention materials to the schools she visited in Rwanda and Uganda for use in providing professional development to teachers in the orphanage schools.

Mrs. Fazio, who has been teaching for two decades, taught her own children to read using Direct Instruction when they were preschoolers. She will return to Africa in December 2009.

  To follow Angelica's experience and see photographs of her trip, visit
  SRADirectInstruction.com/blog.

  About Direct Instruction

Direct Instruction is a structured teaching method based on 40 years of research. Now it is used in classrooms of all types throughout the world, with students ranging from those with learning difficulties to very bright students. Direct Instruction's programs are based on two beliefs: All children can learn regardless of their learning histories, and all teachers can be successful when given effective materials and presentation techniques. These programs have been proven to work even when other programs fail. They provide a well-structured learning process that helps students learn "how to learn" while building specific skills in reading, math, spelling, and language arts. Today, more than 1 million students in a third of the country's schools use a Direct Instruction program.

About SRA/McGraw-Hill

SRA/McGraw-Hill is the top provider of specialized research-based educational programs and professional development for the elementary market. Leading programs include SRA Imagine It! reading program, Direct Instruction, SRA Number Worlds, and additional core and supplemental programs. SRA is part of McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP). McGraw-Hill Education is a leading global provider of instructional, assessment, and reference solutions that empower professionals and students of all ages. McGraw-Hill Education has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 65 languages. Additional information is available at MHEducation.com. For more information on SRA/McGraw-Hill's products, call 1-888-SRA-4543 and visit SRAonline.com.

  Media
  Contacts: Mark Merz                   Melina Metzger
            SRA/McGraw-Hill             Paul Werth Associates
            (614) 750-7339              (614) 224-8114 Ext. 236
            mark_merz@mcgraw-hill.com   mmetzger@paulwerth.com

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SOURCE: SRA/McGraw-Hill

CONTACT: Mark Merz of SRA/McGraw-Hill, +1-614-750-7339,
mark_merz@mcgraw-hill.com; or Melina Metzger of Paul Werth Associates,
+1-614-224-8114, Ext. 236, mmetzger@paulwerth.com

Web Site: http://www.mheducation.com/