FSU partners with Ventris Learning to improve reading outcomes

Florida State University researchers are working with Wisconsin-based Ventris Learning to move new tools into elementary school classrooms that will help teachers identify children who are at risk for reading difficulties.

The university has licensed advanced screening assessments developed by researchers Yaacov Petscher and Hugh Catts as part of the Reach Every Reader Project, funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

“Drs. Petscher and Catts are dedicated researchers who are committed to improving the tools that help our students and teachers on their educational journeys,” said Valerie Landrio McDevitt, associate vice president for strategic partnerships and innovation. “We are excited to partner with Ventris Learning to get this work in the hands of educators who are working in the classroom helping children to read.”

The assessments use computer games as a quick tool to determine if a young learner is at risk of being a struggling reader.

“It is important that this assessment is conducted in the early school grades to prevent reading problems and psycho-social consequences,” said Catts, a longtime faculty member in the School of Communication Science and Disorders.

Petscher, an associate director of the Florida Center for Reading Research, said this ability to get to children early and help teachers make instructional decisions can affect a child’s long-term learning.

“One of my favorite aspects of translational science is when you can go from theory to data to a tool and get it out into the world to try and make a difference,” Petscher said. “Our assessments are arming teachers with information they can use to make decisions in real time in their classrooms in terms of which students might benefit more from certain kinds of reading instruction or interventions.”

Ventris is specifically capitalizing on assessments for three areas key in literacy — phonological awareness, word reading, and non-word reading. The company is putting additional technology in place so that schools can actively use the tool developed by FSU researchers to help make individualized decisions for students based on how well they perform on the assessment.

“One of the joys of working in this industry is to create tools that help teachers and students,” said Steve Tardrew, vice president of product development at Ventris. “That’s what’s exciting about this. It’s empowering teachers because they will have information at their fingertips more quickly than they’ve had before about something that is critical in the development of their students’ reading ability.”

Petscher and Catts’ work, funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, took over five years to complete. They spent that time looking at large samples of schools and students from across the nation and focusing on the core data that teachers needed to make instructional decisions.

FSU’s Commercialization team licensed the assessments to Ventris so that work could move from the research realm into schools.

“We think this test will be very versatile,” said Robert Meyer, CEO of Ventris Learning. “It won’t just be used by teachers, but by reading specialists, reading coaches, and speech-language pathologists.”

U.S. students’ reading scores have declined steadily over the past decade. In 2024, fewer than a third of students nationwide scored at or above the proficient level in reading for both grades 4 and 8 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Catts and Petscher have worked together at the Florida Center for Reading Research for the past decade. FCRR’s mission is to improve reading and reading-related skills across the lifespan.

Ventris hopes to have the product in classrooms through their platform by early 2026.

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