Since its original state legislative allocation in 1999, the MLRC continues to seek and receive funding from regional and local foundations, and private individuals, to replicate its brain-stimulating interventions in schools.  The MLRC trains teachers through educational workshops and follow-up on-site mentoring to provide pre-kindergarten through third grade teachers with the tools they need to help children, including those with academic challenges, develop the learning readiness skills they need to be successful.

To help underachieving students improve their reading and academic performance, sixteen Minnesota public schools developed partnerships with the MLRC, in 1999, to become the first Designated Learning Sites (DLS).  Outside of Minnesota, the first schools to benefit from the S.M.A.R.T. training and on-site mentoring were located in South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Tennessee; a 2001 federal grant provided the support for 75 schools, with over 5,300 students, to implement the MLRC’s program for two years.

As more schools began to take notice of S.M.A.R.T. and inquire about becoming a DLS, the U.S. Department of Education approved a major grant, in 2001, for the MLRC to replicate the program in other schools across the nation.  Two years later, the MLRC received a second federal grant, which combined with the first grant provided over $1.5 million of support, to continue expanding S.M.A.R.T. and perform a comprehensive study of the program.  Schools in North Dakota, Iowa, and Delaware joined the S.M.A.R.T. team in the 2004-05 academic year.

The success of S.M.A.R.T. is largely attributed to its cost-effectiveness and easy implementation.  Based on the total number of S.M.A.R.T. students around the country in academic year 2009-10, the cost of implementation remains at approximately $120 per student (a fraction of the cost for Special Education or Title I services).  In addition, the S.M.A.R.T. program is compatible with any existing curriculum, making it easy for teachers to implement.

Over the years, the MLRC has issued several reports that focus on learning readiness, reading achievement, and student development.  All of the reports and MLRC program evaluations can be found at
http://www.themlrc.org/about/about_programs_data.htm

The MLRC’s most current work involves two populations of high need—the S.M.A.R.T.-Early Childhood (EC) project, involving 22 Minnesota Head Start sites, and S.M.A.R.T. Solutions, which addresses the readiness needs of low-income children in grades K-3.  S.M.A.R.T.-EC was created in response to early childhood administrators seeking help, and the mounting evidence that shows the long-term academic and social benefits of early childhood education.  The purpose of it is to use S.M.A.R.T. with pre-school children who are at-risk and provide them with multi-sensory brain stimulation before entering school to fully prepare them to learn.  This five-year project will conclude with a longitudinal study that follows these S.M.A.R.T. children, from Head Start to kindergarten and first grade, to see if the gains they made in pre-school were permanent.

S.M.A.R.T. Solutions is a project funded by the Greater Twin Cities United Way, designed to increase reading skills in K–3 students from families of low income.  It is an enhanced and more comprehensive version of S.M.A.R.T. that combines the program’s standard curriculum with auxiliary services, such as a newly developed Title I component, to address the needs that students from impoverished backgrounds often face.  S.M.A.R.T. Solutions has been implemented through partnerships between the MLRC and seven Twin Cities metro-area elementary schools.