Scottish Rite for Children has expanded its award-winning suite of dyslexia curricula with the launch of a web-based intervention that reduces teacher training time and cost while preserving high-quality, evidence-based instruction. The new curriculum cuts teacher training time from two years to 10 days by integrating a web-based virtual instructor who co-teaches each lesson. The research-tested curriculum accelerates student outcomes and gives school districts greater flexibility to meet the increasing demand for dyslexia intervention.
Bridges: A Dyslexia Intervention Connecting Teacher, Avatar and Student was written by the experts at Scottish Rite’s Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders. The curriculum is based on Scottish Rite’s Take Flight program, which is the national standard for dyslexia education for children 7 and up. While Take Flight requires an academic language therapist to teach the curriculum, Bridges provides classroom and special education teachers with scripted resources, interactive tools, and a virtual co-teacher, Ms. Hallie, who consistently delivers the new learning portions of each lesson via a large screen in the classroom.
“We developed our innovative Bridges curriculum to help school districts meet the growing demand for dyslexia intervention,” said Karen Avrit, M.Ed., CALT, QI, director of Dyslexia Education at Scottish Rite. “It’s designed to be more accessible while still offering a high-quality, research-tested program. We’re delighted to see the positive feedback from administrators and teachers alike, and the students love it because it’s fun and helps them succeed.”
Avrit is a leading expert in the field of dyslexia education, writing, editing, and teaching multiple dyslexia and reading comprehension curricula, including the widely used Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia. To create Bridges, Avrit worked with a team at The University of Texas Dallas to bring Ms. Hallie to life. Now, decades of dyslexia education expertise have been captured in a state-of-the-art virtual learning tool that will help children in classrooms around the country learn to read and comprehend.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the Bridges curriculum, dyslexia researchers compared literacy outcomes for students in the Bridges program to students receiving the already highly-validated Take Flight intervention. Researchers conducted the IRB-approved study (Institutional Review Board) in public school classrooms across several North Texas-area school districts, comparing the progress of 162 students during two academic years. Results indicated that the two groups demonstrated comparatively similar growth in oral and written language skills, suggesting that the tech-assisted Bridges program and the traditional Take Flight program are similarly effective in improving literacy outcomes for students with dyslexia.
The percentage of students diagnosed with dyslexia is growing. In Texas, it doubled from 3% in 2017 to 6% in 2023. School districts are under pressure to identify and provide help for students diagnosed with dyslexia. A new Texas law passed in 2023 has brought the issue to the forefront, reshaping dyslexia education and intervention in public schools. Dyslexia education now falls under special education.
“At Scottish Rite, we are focused on giving children back their childhood, and we are proud to partner with school districts to meet the mounting needs of students with dyslexia. Our goal is to offer greater access to an evidence-based, structured program that gives students confidence and skills to learn and reach their full potential,” Avrit said.
Bridges is a two-year program designed for children ages 7 and older. Students can participate in hour-long lessons four days a week or 45-minute lessons five days a week. The virtual instructor uses 15 to 20 minutes of each lesson to deliver the more complex aspects of the dyslexia intervention. This includes the proper mouth and facial movements associated with making the correct letter sounds. The certified teacher provides live instruction based on scripted materials and interacts with students to answer questions and control the rate of instruction. This combination of teacher and avatar ensures the student receives the most consistent, accurate instruction while progressing through the curriculum at a pace that works for them. The Texas Education Agency has included the Bridges curriculum on its list of approved dyslexia interventions.
Additional information about Bridges, including its newly lowered price for the 2025-2026 school year, can be found here.
