9/9/2024

Educator-Inspired Updates to Lexia Products for Back to School 2024

The hard work of advancing literacy and sourcing the right tools for language acquisition happens every day inside classrooms and within districts. Educators have smart ideas for making reading and literacy instruction more effective, equitable, and engaging. 

At Lexia®, we’re listening and innovating our solutions in response. And what we’re achieving together is working. 

• This year, we released a study that revealed students using Lexia® Core5® Reading, coupled with instruction from teachers who had initiated or completed Lexia® LETRS® training, exhibited superior reading skills after one year compared to their counterparts whose teachers had not received LETRS training.
• A study by RAND Education and Labor that examined the impact of Core5 on reading achievement in grades 3 to 5 found all students, by grade level and by sub-group, accelerated faster than comparison groups.

We’re excited to share this year’s enhancements, many inspired by your feedback. See what’s new!

What’s New in Lexia Core5 Reading?

Core5 is the adaptive literacy program that accelerates the development of literacy skills for all students in grades pre-K–5.

High-frequency words

The science of reading is at the forefront of an updated instructional approach for teaching high-frequency words. New enhancements will draw students’ attention to letter-sound correspondences as well as build their ability to automatically recognize regular and irregular high-frequency words. You’ll see this both within the program and in teacher-led supports. 

Phonological awareness

Core5 has expanded its direct, systematic, and explicit instruction in phonological awareness skills by adding new warmups that further review and practice phonological awareness skills across all levels in grades pre-K–1.

Introducing a new world location: The Ural Mountains

Explore different cultures and geographies by introducing students to a brand new location: Level 12, The Ural Mountains. In this newly designed level, students will explore the rich heritage of this region, showcasing its beautiful landscape, wildlife, and culture.

Core5 plus LETRS: Better together

As mentioned, the pairing of Core5 and LETRS professional learning helps generate accelerated reading skills. To build on this success, we enhanced Core5 lessons to tighten their alignment with current research-based best practices and to provide clearer connections with LETRS instructional strategies.

What’s New in Lexia English Language Development?

Lexia English Language Development™ supports grades K–6 English Language Learners in developing English language skills through engaging, culturally relevant content, structured lessons, and personalized learning paths.

Enhanced speech recognition

The Lexia English Speech Recognition Engine is continuously optimized. The latest improvements allow for:

• More precise recognition of the words students speak
• Updated grading system to better identify and respond to student errors, providing more specific feedback and practice opportunities
• Adjustments to the sensitivity to speech onset and offset to enhance the learning experience

Personalized learning companions

Student avatars give students a heightened sense of personal investment in their language development journey. They can select and tailor their own avatar from a variety of skin colors, hair styles, and hair colors to visually represent them during speaking interactions with the Lexia English characters. With their personal avatar, students easily know:

• When to speak to the character
• When to repeat after the character
• When to respond to a question presented by a character
  
  

What’s New in Lexia PowerUp Literacy? 

PowerUp supports students in grades 6 through 12 who are at risk of not meeting college- and career-ready standards, helping them to accelerate literacy gains through an intensive, personalized learning experience.

Enhancing relevance and inclusivity

PowerUp content features boosted relevance, inclusivity, and educational rigor. 

• Advanced Reading Comprehension levels: Five passages and their question sets have been updated with culturally responsive texts and corresponding rigorous activities. 
• Word Study strand: 12 new engaging passages feature diverse, multidimensional characters. Fluency activities have deeper post-reading comprehension questions, further improving the learning experience.

Increased focus on vocabulary learning

An enhanced vocabulary preview task offers a more in-depth and research-backed method for students to preview high-impact vocabulary from the passage. This improved vocabulary preview task will expand to the remaining Reading Comprehension activities in future releases.

More immersive learning experience

A cohesive and intentional set of sound effects help immerse students into the experience of learning and engaging artwork and videos draw students into the program. We’ve also expanded the number of units that include our Racing task (a fan favorite!) where students select answers in the context of a car race.

What’s New in myLexia? 

myLexia® provides real-time access to detailed student performance data, allowing teachers to monitor individual and classroom progress efficiently and allows district/school leaders to monitor district and school-level usage and progress.

Reimagined resources hubs 

Resources Hubs within myLexia are comprehensive repositories for a wide range of tools and downloadable content designed to enhance the usability and effectiveness of our literacy programs. 

The user experience has been revamped to be organized by skill area, making it easier to find relevant materials for specific literacy needs and overall, making the hubs easier to navigate. Following are some of the upgraded assets you’ll find there.

Recognize and celebrate student success

Easily celebrate success with your PowerUp students with new Achievement Certificates. See when a student has recently completed a program level and print a personalized achievement certificate for that student to celebrate their progress.

Drill-down into performance data

Lexia English Detailed Skills Reports provide detailed information about a student’s work. From the Student Overview, view detailed performance information to help guide instructional next steps.

Expanded state standard reporting

Learn how ‘Lexia Fits the Bill’ with details about how Core5 and PowerUp align with literacy standards for Missouri, Arizona, Maryland, and Michigan

Design and usability

Simplified Core5 and PowerUp class overviews and consistent staff usage reporting is available across both products.

What’s New in the Lexia LETRS Suite? 

The LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) Suite is the professional development course designed to deepen educators’ knowledge and expertise in the science of reading.

LETRS: Session attendance tracking 

An enhanced professional learning session attendance tracking feature within the application allows:

• Convenient Tracking: Monitor and record attendance at scheduled sessions directly through the online platform.
• Seamless Progress Tracking: Receive immediate credit for participation by downloading certificates and viewing completion on transcripts.
• Streamlined Experience: Enjoy a simplified and user-friendly process for tracking engagement and progress.

LETRS for Administrators: Post-test for mastery and reinforcement

LETRS won the 2024 SIIA CODiE Best Education Professional Development Solution.

An optional post-test upon completion of the five-unit online course serves as a valuable self-assessment and professional growth tool with multiple benefits:

• Evaluate understanding and retention of key literacy concepts
• Identify Knowledge Gaps
• Gauge mastery and pinpoint areas for further review
• Reinforce Learning Objectives
• Solidify knowledge gained through reinforcement of core learning objectives

What’s New in Lexia Aspire Professional Learning? 

New Courses

Given that only 34% of fourth grade students and 31% of eighth grade students read proficiently, Lexia Aspire® Professional Learning has recently introduced new Data and Assessment courses that will enable educators to:

1. Analyze assessment data
2. Identify students’ literacy strengths and gaps
3. Tailor instruction to meet varying student needs

The Introductory Prerequisite courses and courses in Word Recognition and Language Comprehension have also been enhanced with streamlined and improved content featuring dozens of new videos, updated assessments, and new Bridge to Application Resources.

On the Web and Under the Hood

Web Accessibility

Across our curriculum products (Core5, PowerUp, Lexia English), there are expanded accessibility features like improved support for screen readers and keyboard operability to enhance access and create more inclusive learning experiences for students with diverse abilities and learning needs.

LETRS instructional videos now feature closed captioning, providing greater access for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. This enhancement also supports diverse learning preferences by allowing users to process information through reading. Additionally, improvements have been made to the on-screen text color and font, reducing eye strain and optimizing readability.

Security and Data Privacy

Lexia is continuously making improvements for security and data privacy. We are now certified for TrustEd Apps by IMS Global. 

Making the Best Better

At Lexia, we’re All for Literacy, so every improvement we make to our products is designed to create more confident readers and more effective teachers. To everyone who reached out with ideas and suggestions in the past year, thank you. We're always open to more feedback, so keep it coming!