Program Description

"Countdown is an essential preventative supplement to any core kindergarten reading program. It’s designed to be taught 15–20 minutes a day, 5 days a week. This powerful, sequential, and efficient exposure to key literacy concepts ensures that your students establish a firm foundation in the subskills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading." According to EdReport’s Science of Reading Snapshot, this program addresses 3/5 foundational literacy components for grades K-1 and 2/5 for grade 2.

Cost

Varies by component and discounts are available when you buy 6+ copies (Student Workbooks are $15.95; Teacher Guides are $37.95; Overhead CD's are $19.95).

Intended Population

• Core
• Intervention
• Intensified intervention

Grade

• Elementary School

Intended Group Size

• Any

ELL/DLL

• Unspecified

Multisensory Applications

• Yes

Delivery Method

• Hybrid / blended delivery

Scripted

• Instructor Scripted

Comprehensive or Skill Specific

• Skill Specific

Placement Tests

• Unspecified

Accelerated Learning

• Unspecified

Assessment to Monitor Skills Mastery

• Yes

Error Correction Built In

• Yes

Fidelity Measures Provided by Publisher

• Unspecified

Research Summary

One master's thesis found no statistically significant difference in letter identification or letter sound recognition between kindergarteners using Countdown and a comparison group using a teacher-created intervention after eight weeks of instruction. However, those in the Countdown group did experience a greater effect size (0.14) in letter sound recognition than their comparison peers. No peer-reviewed research was found. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of this program at this time.