Student with Dyslexia Reaches 99th Percentile on Florida ELA Test

How a Student with Dyslexia and ADHD Climbed from the Bottom of Reading Charts to the 99th Percentile

St Johns, United States – June 17, 2026 / Tutoring Club /

A Long-Term Success Story Demonstrates the Power of Individualized Instruction

When Kat first arrived at Tutoring Club of St. Johns in 2019, she was facing considerable academic obstacles.

Kat had received diagnoses of dyslexia, ADHD, and processing difficulties. She had been held back in first grade and ranked among the lowest-performing readers in the country. Reading was a source of frustration and exhaustion – something she actively avoided. Like many students with learning differences, conventional instructional methods were not delivering the repetition, structure, or individualized support she required. Her family recognized that she needed more intensive phonics and reading tutoring to make meaningful progress.

Her family turned to Tutoring Club of St. Johns in search of intensive literacy intervention and a clear path forward.

What followed was not a quick fix – it was a carefully structured, long-term process that would ultimately shape Kat into a confident reader and independent learner.

Building a Personalized Path to Success

From the outset, Tutoring Club understood that Kat’s needs extended well beyond a standard tutoring program.

The instructional team continuously refined her learning plan based on how she processed and retained information. Curriculum was modified, teaching strategies were adjusted, and instructors tracked her progress closely to determine which approaches yielded the strongest results.

Because ADHD made sustained attention challenging, lessons were deliberately built around Kat’s interests and strengths. Tutors wove in topics she found engaging, which helped increase focus and improve retention over time.

Tutoring Club’s structured literacy approach brought together evidence-based reading interventions, explicit phonics instruction, reading fluency development, vocabulary building, and comprehension strategies – all delivered alongside Socratic tutoring techniques. Instruction incorporated increased repetition and individualized pacing, allowing Kat to develop skills in a manner that aligned with how her brain processed information.

As her abilities grew, she moved from intensive one-on-one instruction into small-group settings, reflecting increasing confidence, independence, and academic resilience.

A Breakthrough in Fourth Grade

By fourth grade, years of consistent intervention began producing notable results.

Standardized testing showed that Kat had climbed from the lowest levels of reading performance to scoring in the top 15% nationally for her grade level.

Her Iowa Assessment scores reflected:

Reading: 85th percentile
Vocabulary: 84th percentile
English Language Arts: 77th percentile

More significantly, reading was becoming easier.

For the first time, reading was no longer something Kat avoided – it was something she sought out.

That same year, she discovered the popular Wings of Fire series and began working through the books on Audible with genuine enthusiasm. What had begun as a literacy intervention had grown into something far more meaningful: a real love of stories and learning.

Beyond Reading: Developing an Independent Learner

After establishing strong literacy foundations, Kat continued at Tutoring Club through middle school, transitioning from reading intervention into broader academic support and schoolwork coaching.

Her tutors helped her build organization skills, study habits, written expression, and independent learning strategies. The focus shifted from remediation toward helping Kat navigate increasingly demanding coursework while applying the methods she had developed over years of tutoring.

By seventh grade, her academic performance continued to reflect substantial growth.

On the Iowa Assessments, Kat earned:

Reading: 91st percentile
Vocabulary: 96th percentile
Written Expression: 93rd percentile
English Language Arts: 94th percentile

The student who had once struggled to decode basic words had become a highly capable reader, writer, and learner.

A Lasting Impact

Today, Kat has completed ninth grade and recently reached one of her most significant academic milestones to date.

On Florida’s Grade 9 PM3 FAST ELA assessment, she earned:

Level 5 Achievement
Scale Score: 285
99th Percentile Ranking

Her performance exceeded grade-level expectations across reading literature, informational texts, vocabulary, and cross-genre analysis.

For Tutoring Club of St. Johns Director Kimberly Mullins, Kat’s achievement represents more than a strong set of test scores.

As both Kat’s mother and an educational advocate, Mullins drew on the lessons learned throughout Kat’s journey to strengthen instructional practices across the organization. The strategies developed while supporting Kat helped inform tutor training programs focused on serving neurodivergent learners – including students with dyslexia, ADHD, processing challenges, and other learning differences.

“Kat taught us as much as we taught her,” said Mullins. “Her journey helped us better understand how to individualize instruction, increase engagement, and adjust teaching methods to meet students where they are. Those lessons continue to benefit countless students who walk through our doors today.”

More Than Higher Scores

While Kat’s progression from the lowest levels of reading achievement to the 99th percentile is by any measure exceptional, the most significant outcome may be one that does not appear on any assessment report.

Tutoring Club’s goal was never simply to raise test scores.

The goal was to help Kat become a reader.

Years later, that goal has been fully realized.

The confidence, independence, and love of reading she developed along the way will continue to serve her long after standardized assessments are a distant memory.

Her story stands as a meaningful reminder that with individualized instruction, consistent support, and a genuine commitment to understanding how each child learns, students with learning differences can reach outcomes that once appeared out of reach.

For Kat, tutoring was not a temporary solution.

It was a lifelong gift.

About Tutoring Club of St. Johns

Tutoring Club of St. Johns provides individualized tutoring, dyslexia support, structured literacy intervention, reading tutoring, academic coaching, and test preparation for K-12 students throughout St. Johns County, Florida. The center develops personalized learning plans designed to identify academic gaps, strengthen literacy skills, build confidence, and support long-term academic success. Learn more about Tutoring Club of St. Johns.