Principals Success Stories

We have five Essential Skills programs in our computer lab. Our Kindergarten and Grade One students use them daily. Both the teachers and students love this software. These programs do a great job of building and reinforcing the basic skills.

Sheila Denson, Principal
Principal, Principal, Alabama

You can't find better value for programs to help children with their basic reading skills then the programs from Essential Skills. These programs have more content then some programs costing ten times as much.

Stephen Fogo, Principal
Principal, Principal, Ohio

We have been using programs from Essential Skills for a couple of years. It was originally intended for ELL but now all students use the software. These programs inspire our slow readers to succeed. The skills align nicely with the state standards for Language Arts. We feel that these programs have been very beneficial to the students.

Tim Bybee, Principal
Principal, Principal, California

We are utilizing the programs with both Special Ed. and the regular classrooms. The students and teachers like the software. We had single user licenses and we upgraded to site licenses.

Tom Becker, Superintendent/Principal
Superintendent/Principal, Superintendent/Principal, Nebraska

My teachers love it. In primary, especially K-1 they are spending 30 minutes a day on ESS programs. The 1st grade teachers say these are their favorite programs. I have recommended ESS to the Diocese.

Valerie Able, Principal
Principal, Principal, Nebraska

Our students' benchmark reading levels have improved dramatically since we started using the Early Literacy Programs from Essential Skills. Our kids are enjoying these programs thoroughly and are developing confidence in their ability to read and understand what they are reading.

Anna Alexander, Principal
Principal, Principal, Ontario

By far the most widely used programs in the school. We are big supporters of Essential Skills.

Dan Brown, Principal
Principal, Principal, Manitoba

Our teachers think the Spelling Stumpers program from Essential Skills is fantastic. The teachers at each grade level can create customized spelling list for their students in addition to the words provided in the program. The kids love the program because it allows them to learn at their own pace. The upper end spellers like the program because it keeps challenging them with more difficult words. There is a nice variety of good spelling activities for each word list. Grades 2 through 5 are using this program in our school.

Jon Yellowlees, Vice Principal
Vice Principal, Vice Principal, Saskatchewan

We find that these programs offer excellent reinforcement for students. The programs are easy to use and the students can work on them independently. The programs return the students to where they left off and provide immediate feedback and a summary of their daily results. For children with weaker motor skills these programs allow them to do much more practice in a session than they would with pencil and paper tasks.

Linda Patrick, Principal
Principal, Principal, Nova Scotia

Some Essential Skills programs are used every week. Spelling Stumpers is used more than once a week. The very best feature is the custom spelling list. We can enter what we teach in the classroom. It's awesome! The grade 9-10 teacher is even using it for her French class because the auditory is there. The grade 1 & 2s are using both levels of Super Phonics. Grammar and Writing Fundamentals are used with the older grades as each skill is taught in the classroom. Reading Comprehension and the Read to Succeed series are also used extensively in the resource room.

Mariette Baker-McDermid, Principal
Principal, Principal, Saskatchewan