Windward School Installs EEG Labs as part of the Windward/Haskins Collaborative Project

To prepare for the beginnings of the first research study for the Windward/Haskins Collaborative Project, state-of-the-art, custom electroencephalography, also known as EEG labs, are now being installed at The Windward School’s Manhattan and Westchester campuses. In February of 2019 Windward, a school for children with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities, announced its collaboration with Haskins Laboratories, a private, non-profit research institute at Yale University with a primary focus on speech, language and reading. The Windward/Haskins Laboratories Collaborative Project is “an international and interdisciplinary collaborative that brings together researchers, practitioners, educators and education technology specials.”

In the United States, 63% of fourth grade students and 66% of eighth-grade students performed below the proficient reading level, according to the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress. This reality spurred Windward and Haskins to collaborate in order to increase brain-based literary pedagogy and remediation.

Jon Russell, long time head of the Windward School who will be taking on a new position at the Windward Institute, which will be launching in January 2020, wrote in a letter addressed to Windward community members that collaborations like this will continue long after a new head steps in.

“The Windward Institute will continue to offer comprehensive professional development programs that are based on scientific research,” Russell wrote. “I believe that increasing awareness of the effectiveness of research-based instructional practices has the potential to positively influence the way students are taught in public and independent schools across the country and impact educational policy at the local, regional, national and international levels.”

Russell also commended the partnership between Windward and Haskins as a historic moment for the school’s 93-year history. “I am proud that Windward will be joining with Haskins Laboratories at the forefront of the continuing efforts to provide all students with language-based learning disabilities with the research-based instruction they need and deserve,” he said.