LEARNING
Measured progress, reported honestly
We measure every student with the same standardized assessments before and after instruction, and we monitor progress between. The numbers below come from those measures, with the cohort, the skill measured, and the timeframe attached.
Summer LEAP 2025 outcomes
22 learners, 6 to 8 weeks of daily one-on-one intervention, measured by the same standardized assessment before and after. An average intensive round is 90 to 120 hours of direct instruction. Individual results vary.
Two students, hour by hour
Progress in structured literacy instruction is measured in instructional hours. These timelines come from two de-identified student records.
Third grader, 120 hours in one summer
Ten hours of one-on-one instruction per week
Phonemic awareness (hearing and working with the sounds inside words) at kindergarten level. Could read simple three-letter words only. Oral reading: 30 correct words per minute on Grade 1 text at 34% accuracy. Refusing to read at home.
Segmenting and blending sounds in short words; all short and long vowel sounds in isolation. At home, no visible change yet. Skills build in sequence before they show in everyday reading.
First 200 sight words known. Oral reading reintroduced: 80% accuracy on Grade 1 text, up from 34%. Trying to read menus.
Phonemic awareness at second-grade level. All syllable types through three syllables. 52 correct words per minute at 95% accuracy. Volunteering to read at home.
High schooler, 100 hours across a year
An older student whose gaps had been masked by effort
Decoding (sounding out unfamiliar words) at elementary level, with minimal sound-to-symbol knowledge. 120 correct words per minute on Grade 5 text, but only 80% accuracy. Straight A's earned through effort and memorization.
All letter-sound correspondences known. Oral reading paused while old guessing strategies are replaced with decoding.
Reading three-syllable words, real and nonsense. Oral reading reintroduced: 80% accuracy on Grade 4 text.
Grade 7 text at 90% accuracy. Five grade levels gained in decoding, four in encoding (spelling). On track to read at grade level by 12th grade.
Why we target orthographic processing early
Orthographic processing is the brain's ability to store and recall the letters and letter patterns that make up written words. Orthographic mapping means the brain is learning to store words accurately and automatically, so reading stops feeling like a guessing game.
Many of our students arrive with strong phonics knowledge but weak orthographic skills: they can sound out a word five times in a row and still not recognize it the sixth time. Targeting orthography directly is often the missing step, and it changes how quickly word recognition and reading fluency develop.
How we measure between tests
Progress monitoring means brief, frequent checks of the exact skills being taught, so instruction can be adjusted week to week rather than discovered to be off-track months later.
Families see the same data we do: current level, target level, and the trend line between them, for each skill on the individualized learning plan.
What educators and families report
"I have seen tremendous growth in students who have worked under Lisa Murphy's direction. Students have improved multiple grade levels and their confidence has skyrocketed."
"Lisa is incredibly knowledgeable in designing reading interventions and instruction for students with learning disabilities. As a special education teacher, I refer to her for some of my most difficult cases."
Start with a free 15-minute consultation.
A quick conversation helps us hear your concerns and guide you to the next steps. We will get you set up to start tutoring, an independent academic evaluation, or a home learning kit, or send you to the professionals who can help if we cannot.
We are committed to working against the way that racial and socioeconomic privilege manifests itself in the identification and remediation of learning disabilities.
We do what we can by offering need based scholarships, doing pro-bono consultation for families with economic needs, providing services in some of Maine's lowest resource schools, and working with educational advocates on the toughest cases to help ALL students get what they need.