The Davis Learning Strategies program is the result of six years of classroom research and observation. In a pilot study, published in 2001 and conducted among two California public schools, the program was introduced in successive years to children in grades K-2. Three classroom groups were compared with demographically matched groups, who had received the same basic language arts curriculum without the supplementary Davis program.The results were encouraging across all levels. For example, first grade students scored significantly higher than the control group for the mastery of 100 basic sight words. Follow-up data showed that no special education referrals had been made two years after initial Davis intervention for any of the three pilot classrooms. At the same time, gifted referrals from these same classrooms were on average four times higher than the typical school population.
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Immediate Excellence ina DLS Model School
In the year 2006, Elbert Elementary school's third grade reading scores went straight from the worst to the best of all schools in the Pikes Peak district in Colorado, US, - immediately after 17 staff members were trained in using DLS. Two years later the school had still retained their leading position. See more here.
Walsh Elementary is a small, underfunded, rural school in Colorado serving preschool through sixth grades. They introduced DLS in 2003, and four years later - against all odds - they had the highest reading scores in the state of Colorado, with 89% of the children scoring at or above grade level proficiency. See more here.For more information go to the Davis Learning Strategies website. We could free up 20% of UK's special needs budget We estimate that the UK could free up £1.5 billion worth of special needs resources by introducing DLS in all primary schools. A single one-off 3% increase in special needs spending can permanently free up as much as 20% of the total annual special needs resources. On average this translates into an £8,000 one-off investment per school, which can free up over £50,000 per school every year from then on.
About £4bn are spent annually on special needs in primary and secondary education Total expenditure on seven million students in primary and secondary education in the UK in 2002-03 was £30.5 billion, or about £4,500 for each student. 13% of the £30.5 billion primary and secondary education budget is spent on special needs, or about £480 for every single student in the country, with special needs or not. If we assume most of this is spent on statemented students (close to 3% of the total student population), this means that each of them receives on average about £15,000 worth of special needs resources each year on top of the average of £4,500 standard education costs. This means that the total special needs budget in primary and secondary school is close to £4 billion every year. |
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About £7bn are spent annually on special needs in UK education as a whole
According to the Department for Education, the total cost for education in 2002-03, up to and including university, was £53.8 billion. UK’s total special needs costs are 13% of this figure, or close to £7 billion.
We could free up £1.5 billion every year in the UK
If DLS is introduced at a primary level, we can expect a significant reduction in special needs as the DLS children filter up through the whole education system right through to higher education. If the special needs reduction is even a fraction of what the initial Californian DLS study indicates, we can reasonably hope to be freeing up as much as 3% of the £53.8 billion total national education budget within 15 years. This amounts to £1.5 billion worth of special needs resources freed up every year in our total education budget - if we believe that we can free up only 20% of our current special needs budget. If we achieved this, we would be getting more than a 100% return on the DLS investment within 2 years.Further £billions saved in the social and justice systems
This potential saving may be exciting, but we haven’t even begun to look at a figure which The Dyslexia Institute estimates to be around £1 billion annually in the UK, and we deem to be a very conservative estimate. This is the cost to society when young people drop out of education and sign up for unemployment benefits or get tempted by a life of crime which can offer instant short-term gratification for a person with broken self-esteem and a poor sense of consequence. A recent study commissioned by the British Dyslexia Association showed the percentage of dyslexics among young offenders to be almost 60%. This study mentioned a larger study - also commissioned by the BDA - where the early indications are considerably higher, or close to 80% dyslexics among offenders. The Davis methods have been shown to successfully address the issue which often is at the root of anti-social behaviour – a diminished sense and understanding of consequence. This issue is at the root of denial, when people do not realise how their behaviour affects their own prospects and other people’s lives. If DLS was introduced nationwide, we could reasonably expect to wee significant savings in policing, the justice system and the prison services, as well as in social services. What happens when the group that makes up most of our offenders is significantly reduced? Other benefits likely from increased numbers of gifted students
These are the potential savings for society as a result of introducing DLS, but that is just one side of the coin. The previously mentioned study in the seven schools in California showed that the average for gifted students quadrupled. Instead of the national average of 5% gifted referrals, the DLS classrooms had an average of 20% gifted referrals. This may be an indication that the picture thinkers manage to harness their gift when the teaching methods cater for their needs, but perhaps also indicates that Davis Learning Strategies enhance learning for every single student in the classroom. As a result of a nationwide introduction of DLS we can reasonably hope to see a significant rise in innovation, productivity and growth, which could well amount to more value than the £1.5bn we could free up in special needs education. DLS cost only 0.3% of one year’s education budget
The average cost of introducing Davis Learning Strategies is less than £8,000 in each primary school. By making this investment, the school can expect to free up special needs resources worth at least £50.000 every year from then on. For all of UK’s 17.700 primary schools, this amounts to a total investment of less than £150 million – one off cost – about 0.3% of one year’s education budget. This formula can be applied to a school’s budget, local education authority or a whole nation. We are then looking to raise the annual special needs budget from 13% to 13.1% for only three consecutive years, with the aim of permanently reducing the special needs demand to 8% over the following few years. This is assuming that we can only partly achieve the success indicated by the seven year research study in California.  |
