History. Project Success, founded by Dr. Robert T.
Nash, began serving students in 1979. The program grew rapidly from serving
six students in 1979 to 150 students in 1985. The program now serves approximately
300 students with a staff of 40 tutors. Over the years the program has been
in existence, hundreds of its students have graduated from the University of
Wisconsin Oshkosh or have transferred to another university and graduated.
Goals. The overarching goal of the Project
Success program is that participants will become independent in and
across all of these major educational areas: mathematics, spelling,
reading, writing, comprehension and study skills. As full-time
university students they will acquire, educationally, their language
independence (non clinically) by mastering the entire phonemic* sound
structure of the American-English language.
* The terms phonemic and phoneme are not to be confused with the term
phonetics. Phonetics represents the study of speech sounds, how they
are produced (articulatory phonetics), how they are perceived
(auditory phonetics) and their physical properties (acoustic
phonetics).
Philosophy. Project Success is one of only
a handful of schools nationwide that is a remedial program
rather than a tutorial assistance program. Most colleges and
universities that offer programs for students with learning
disabilities are based on the tutorial model. What's the
major difference between these models and how does it affect my
choice of programs for myself or my son or daughter?
A tutorial assistance program offers services that help a student
compensate for his or her dyslexia. For example, typical services
offered by this type of program include books on tape, readers for
assignments and tests, note takers, and tutors to explain content.
The goal of the tutorial assistance program is to provide the
necessary aids to help the student succeed.
In contrast to a tutorial program, Project Success is a remedial
program. The goal of a remedial program is to assist the student to
develop the necessary language skills to read, write, and spell
effectively and efficiently to the point that the student becomes
academically independent. Our program does not have a library of
books on tape. Instead, the goal of our course instruction and
tutoring assistance is to teach students how to use the sound
structure of the American English language to become language
independent. Therefore, when one of our tutors helps a student with a
course, in addition to teaching course content, the goal of
instruction is also to help the student learn how to read the book
and apply study skills which will allow him or her to become
academically independent.
An example of how a remedial program such as Project Success differs
from many other programs at the post secondary level is in the area
of test taking. Our tutors are instructed not to read the test to the
student. The tutor monitors the student's reading of the test and
assists the student to correct reading errors. The tutor does not
read the entire test or interpret questions for the student.
A logical question is how long does the process of becoming
academically independent take? Our goal is that the process occurs
within two to seven semesters after entry into the program. This is a
large time variation, but some students, because of their level of
disability upon entering the program, take longer. The point is,
however, that with good instruction and persistence, students can be
taught to become language independent. Our summer program is the
first step on the road to language independence
Return to Project Success home page