Davis learning strategiesSM
 Iceland
 UK

Davis learning strategiesSM

The Davis Learning Strategies have been extensively researched and published, with very encouraging results. Seven schools in California piloted a trial run of Davis Learning Strategies for seven years. None of the seven schools had a single special needs referral during the trial period. Furthermore, gifted referrals in the seven schools were ranging from 100% to 800% higher than the US national average of 5% (10-40% of the classrooms were referred to accelerated programs).

 See DLS website

DLS research article
25-Nov-2004
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An article published in the peer-reviewed American journal Reading Improvement in 2001.

DLS research paper
25-Nov-2004
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The first pilot study into the effects of Davis Learning strategies, done in Californian schools 1993-1997.

Axel Gudmundsson is a Davis facilitator who has successfully implemented the programs in Icelend and the UK. He is the founder director of (hyperlink)Lesblind.com in Iceland and (hyperlink)Gifted Dyslexic in the UK. Axel shares with us some of his findings about the Iceland and UK projects.

Iceland

The Icelandic project is already a roaring success as Axel Gudmundsson, Davis facilitator and founder director of Lesblind.com in Iceland and Gifted Dyslexic in the UK, describes:

	My initial talk in Feb. 2003 had a surprise audience of 700 instead of the 30-40 anticipated. A couple of hundred people had to be turned away because the location was overcrowded. The total number of people trying to attend amounts to 0,3% of the Icelandic population. Another way to put this into context, is to realise that when sir Richard Attenborough gave an open lecture before Christmas 2003 to promote his bestseller book in Iceland, he had the same attendance
	At the talk we conducted a survey in order to see what the audience wanted and the results were overwhelming
	The survey showed that about 90 people out of the 170 that got a copy of the survey - we didn't expect this size audience - confirmed that they wanted a correction program ASAP. This is 50% and if we presume that the survey reflected the whole group of 900 people that tried to attend, I was faced with a waiting list of over 400 people. Considering that I was the only trained Davis facilitator in the whole of Scandinavia, coupled with the fact that I actually live in London and didn't intend to work much in my native Iceland, - and my annual capacity of clients is limited to around 25 - I was faced with a 20 year waiting list
	I realised that I had to put in place resources to deal with this demand, so I got the parents of another successful client in Iceland to start a company with me - Lesblind.com - to manage the Icelandic Project
	I had already set up a website which now is called www.lesblind.com, and is now the biggest and most popular learning difficulty website in Iceland
	I organised an immediate translation and publishing of the book “The Gift of Dyslexia” which was published within 6 months - on Ron Davis' birthday August 8
	To celebrate the launch of the book in Icelandic we arranged a talk by Ron Davis with an audience of 650 people
	We donated the book free of charge to every single primary school in Iceland
	We produced a globally unique video to supplement the book when used in DIY dyslexia correction
	We sent out a SOS to the global Davis Facilitator community and over the first year we shipped in foreign facilitators from all over the world - some from as far as Australia - in order to offer some relief to the immediate need. In the first year of operation we provided correction programs to about 100 Icelandic dyslexics by foreign facilitators with a very satisfying success rate
	Training of 20 Icelandic Davis facilitators to offer dyslexia correction in Iceland
	Setting up a centre - Lesblind.com - where Icelandic Davis facilitators can work together under one roof
	Training of 120 primary school teachers, representing 20% of Icelandic primary schools which means we are on target for introducing the Davis methods in every primary school in Iceland within 5 years from now. This could mean a dramatic drop in numbers of learning disabled in the Icelandic education system. Included In this is a primary school with over 600 pupils, where all 45 members of staff (teaching and administration) had Davis training. This particular school is preparing a three-year study comparing their own performance with another local school which has for years been parallel in performance
	Successful “Festival of Dyslexia” with participation from a selection of the leading artists in Iceland – gifted with dyslexia of course
	Piloting schemes where trade unions subsidise dyslexia correction programs
	Piloting a successful workshop called “Back to Work” where unemployed dyslexics are corrected, and subsequently given basic computer training in order to prepare them for the workplace

After this success in Iceland, Axel decided to focus his energy in London with the dream of creating the same success here in the UK, and eventually globally.

UK

There are just under 3.5m students in 17,700 primary schools and just under 3.5m in 3,400 secondary schools in UK.

This is a total of almost 7m students in primary and secondary education, and the costs are as follows:

According to the Department for Education, expenditure on education services by central and local government in the UK in 2002-03 was £30.5 billion on primary and secondary schools, or about £4,500 expenditure for each student in primary and secondary education every year.

If we assume that 10% of the £30.5 billion primary and secondary education budget is spent on special needs, we can estimate the special needs budget to be about £3 billion every year.

This is very interesting, given that an initial seven year study after introducing Davis Learning Strategies (DLS) in seven Californian schools showed that referrals for special needs were eliminated. There was not a single special needs referral in any of the schools for seven years. The average cost of introducing Davis Learning Strategies in a primary school is less than £5,000.

This amounts to a total cost of less than £100 million - once only - to introduce DLS in each and every primary school in the UK.

Total expenditure on education services by central and local government in the UK in 2002-03 was £53.8 billion for education up to and including higher education. This amount was split into £35.2 billion spent by local education authorities and £18.6 billion spent by central government.

If DLS is introduced at a primary level, we can expect that in 15 years these children will have filtered up the whole education system, right through to higher education. At that time we can hope to be saving up to 10% of the £53.8 billion for education up to and including higher education. This amounts to a saving £5 billion every year in our education budget.

This is very exciting, but we haven't even begun to look at a figure which The Dyslexia Institute estimates to be around £1 billion, and I think is 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, which again is a key component in addictive behaviour and crime - not realising how we are affecting our own prospects and other people´s lives.

These are the potential savings as a result of introducing DLS, but that is just one side of the coin. The previously mentioned studyin the seven schools in California showed that the average for gifted students rose by 100%-800%. This is probably an indication that the picture thinkers manage to harness their gift when the teaching methods cater for their needs, but this probably 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 expect to see a significant rise in innovation, productivity and growth, which could well amount to a lot more value than the savings of £5bn earlier mentioned.

Our opinion is that DLS is an experiment that no school, local education authority, local or central government can afford not to explore.