The task of teaching children how to read has been a challenge for educators since public schooling became the norm. In recent years technology has opened the door for even more innovative approaches when it comes to teaching students literacy skills.

Recently the Reading Horizons Discovery (v7.0) platform launched with a goal of helping K-3 students learn how to read.

This latest update to the Reading Horizons platform is steeped in a form of sabermetrics, or advanced data.

Teachers have the ability to learn the pace of each student’s reading ability and Reading Horizons Discovery gives educators a choice of assessments instead of taking a one size fits all approach to teaching and learning.

Some of the new features in the latest update include assessment variety, a new app in the Apple Store for iPads, and a way to properly pilot the reading pace of the entire class or limited groups.

This tool is meant for parents as well. Teachers, parents, and students are able to determine the right books for the student as the results of the assessments will give data as to how far the student has progressed.

In addition to the assessments and reading tools embedded within the Reading Horizons Discovery platform, there are games to help keep students engaged as well as fun ways to ensure that the students are retaining the information learned from each book.

But maybe the most important portion of the platform comes with the diversity in assessments. It shows that each student is unique, cannot be judged with the same ruler, and learns at different paces.

Creating a learning instrument that truly understands the fluid nature of teaching and the wide range as to how students learn is vital. Giving students a safe and fun environment to learn, and allowing teachers the space to use different measurements to appraise how students are reading, is certainly a needed step in the right direction.