Laura Busby

I highly recommend the Barton Reading & Spelling System for library-based literacy programs. This system answers the need for accessible, expert guidance for volunteers teaching adults (and children) with reading disabilities.

It is easy for volunteer tutors to use because the lessons are fully scripted. Both volunteer tutors and learners feel successful using the Barton System.

This is the system that adult literacy programs have been waiting for.

I marvel each day at the common-sense way this whole system is put together, and how easy it is to use.

I work for a small literacy council. We train about 150 volunteer tutors a year.

I have used the Wilson System with my own student for about 3 years. Although I have tried to convince our volunteer tutors to use it, they say it is too hard to use.

The Barton Reading & Spelling System is volunteer friendly, and I like it better than the Wilson System.

It is perfect for our literacy council.

I have nothing but praise for the quality and effectiveness of the Barton Reading & Spelling System.

I am a certified teacher, having taught first grade for many years. For the past seven years, I have worked in adult literacy in Michigan and Ohio.

As the program director, my job is to train volunteer tutors, pick the materials we use, and monitor results. We work with struggling adults who read below an 8th grade level, both native English speakers and ESL. Recently, we have started to work with children who have dyslexia.

When I first came to this job, I started testing existing students. The first student had made only one year’s growth despite ten years of regular attendance. When I asked why he kept coming, he said he thought that one day “the light would come on.”

Our approach wasn’t working — not only for him, but for most of our students. Our attrition rate was so high. Most adults came in reading at a second, third, or fourth grade level, and rarely progressed because we were using the standard adult reading materials: Laubach, Challenger, etc.

While teaching first grade, I had been trained in Orton-Gillingham. So when the brochure for the Barton Reading & Spelling System came across my desk, I ordered Level 1 and 2 to pilot the program with an 8 year old and the adult who had been coming for 10 years yet had only made one year of growth.

My results? The adult improved his reading by 4 grade levels in one year. The 8 year old, who was failing first grade, has A’s in reading and language arts on her report card in third grade. Her teachers were so impressed that they started an after school program using the Barton System.

Through a combination of tutor donations and grants, I got a site license. Everyone loves the Barton System. The training tapes and scripted lesson plans are great. It really, really works. Every single student has significantly increased his or her reading level.

Our volunteer tutors love the program. In fact, our staff members personally tutor as many as 5 students each. Our attrition rate is now 0.

We use the Barton System not only with adults, but also in our juvenile care system, and in our family literacy program.

Students that the public school system gave up on are now becoming readers.

I have nothing but praise for the quality and effectiveness of the Barton Reading & Spelling System.