Preventing Academic Failure

Preventing Academic Failure is a structured, multisensory Orton-Gillingham–based reading, spelling, and handwriting program developed by Phyllis Bertin and Eileen Perlman for classroom and small-group use. It is a remediation-grade literacy program favored by trained tutors, clinical reading specialists, and a smaller contingent of homeschool families with dyslexic learners.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist / Orton-Gillingham-based / multisensory / explicit-structured-literacy
Worldview	Faith-neutral
Grades	K-5 primary use; applicable as remediation for older struggling readers
Formats	Print manuals, student workbooks, supporting materials; no digital delivery
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	5 (heavily teacher-directed; assumes trained instructor or committed self-taught parent)
ESA-common	Varies, dyslexia-remediation materials are often reimbursable
Accredited	No (the publisher is not an academy)
Established	Developed from the 1980s at the Windward School; 1988 formalization
Website	pafprogram.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	Full structured-literacy sequence, phonemic awareness through multi-syllable decoding and morphology
Ease of teaching	2	Requires either formal training or substantial self-study; the program assumes a clinician
Content quality	5	Professionally developed, classroom-tested, consistent with evidence-based reading research
Flexibility	3	Sequenced tightly; the program is effective when followed carefully, less so when improvised
Value for money	3	Fair per-level pricing; training and supporting materials raise the true cost
Worldview scope	5	Faith-neutral and usable across all family worldviews
Visual/design	3	Clean, utilitarian; the point is clinical function, not child-pleasing graphics
Support resources	4	Training through PAF office and affiliated OG centers; published research base is strong

Who the publisher is

PAF was developed at the Windward School, a New York school for students with language-based learning differences, by Phyllis Bertin and Eileen Perlman in the 1980s and formalized as a distributable program in 1988. Both developers are veteran reading specialists with classroom experience teaching dyslexic and language-delayed students; PAF reflects decades of clinical observation of what works with those learners. The program is sold and supported through the PAF Program office, which also delivers teacher training workshops and certifies instructors.

PAF sits in the same category as the better-known Orton-Gillingham approach, Wilson Reading System, Barton Reading and Spelling, and Logic of English, programs built on the premise that reading and spelling must be taught with explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, combined with multisensory techniques that engage visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pathways simultaneously. PAF's distinctive contribution is its classroom-scalable adaptation: it was designed for a teacher delivering to a small group, not one-on-one, which is why it is common in private schools for dyslexic students and in district special-education programs.

The homeschool audience for PAF is small but committed. Families using PAF are typically those who have received a dyslexia diagnosis for a child and have been referred to a structured-literacy approach by an educational psychologist, speech-language pathologist, or reading tutor. A smaller portion of homeschool families adopt PAF preventively, often after a parent or older sibling struggled with reading, or because the parent is themselves a former reading teacher. It is not a general-audience phonics program and is not marketed to a general audience.

The core pedagogy

PAF is a fully sequenced structured-literacy program. It begins with phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence, advances through short-vowel and long-vowel patterns, syllable types (closed, open, silent-e, vowel teams, r-controlled, consonant-le), affixes, and multi-syllable decoding, and culminates in morphology. Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes that drive upper-elementary vocabulary. Handwriting is taught alongside reading from the beginning, with an emphasis on correct letter formation as reinforcement of letter-sound memory.

The program's multisensory technique is specific: students see a letter or pattern, say its sound, and write it simultaneously, often with a finger trace on a textured surface before pencil-paper work. This tri-modal encoding is the core of the OG tradition and is well-supported in the reading research literature, the 2000 National Reading Panel report identified structured phonics instruction as among the most effective interventions for struggling readers.

Signature mechanics: (1) Scripted lesson sequence, each lesson in the PAF manuals is specified step by step, with a warm-up, new-concept presentation, guided practice, and independent application. (2) Decodable text, students read only text composed of phonetic patterns they have been explicitly taught; "sight words" are introduced in controlled sequence. (3) Handwriting as literacy tool, handwriting practice is embedded in every reading lesson, which reinforces letter-sound memory through motor pathways. (4) Progress monitoring, the program includes periodic mastery checks to confirm the student is ready to advance before new patterns are introduced.

A day in the life

A second-grader using PAF at home under parent instruction begins reading work at roughly 9:00 AM. The parent opens the current PAF manual to the lesson-of-the-day and works through the prescribed five-to-seven step sequence: a phonemic awareness warm-up (the parent says a word, the student isolates phonemes); a review of previously taught patterns using flashcards or pattern tiles; the presentation of the new pattern for the day, with multisensory reinforcement (the student says, writes, and reads words containing the pattern); guided reading of decodable text using the new pattern; guided spelling dictation; and a short fluency drill on a prior week's pattern. Total session time: thirty to forty-five minutes. The program assumes daily practice five days a week, with no skipping even when other subjects are disrupted, because reading acquisition depends on cumulative spaced practice.

A parent without formal OG training typically needs six to ten hours of self-study with the manual before beginning, and benefits from a one-day or two-day PAF training offered by the publisher or by an affiliated Orton-Gillingham training center. A trained parent-instructor delivers the program at substantially higher fidelity than an untrained one. Families who find the manual-only approach overwhelming often hire a PAF-trained tutor for one session per week and deliver the other four sessions at home with the tutor's guidance.

What they do exceptionally well

Evidence-based structured literacy. PAF is aligned with the findings of the National Reading Panel and the broader science-of-reading literature. Students who complete PAF with fidelity reach grade-level reading at rates comparable to other high-quality OG-derivative programs, which is the highest standard available for dyslexic and at-risk readers. For the intended audience, the program's effectiveness is well-documented.

Classroom-scalable design. Unlike pure one-on-one OG tutoring, PAF is designed for small-group delivery. This means the program works effectively when two or three siblings study together, and it adapts cleanly to homeschool co-ops where a trained parent or tutor delivers PAF to a small group of children with similar reading profiles. Families who want remediation-quality instruction but cannot afford private tutoring often organize co-op PAF groups.

Morphology at the upper-elementary level. PAF extends past phonics into morphology, prefixes, suffixes, and Latin/Greek roots, at a level most general-audience phonics programs do not reach. For upper-elementary students who have mastered basic decoding but struggle with the vocabulary of content-area textbooks, the morphology sequence fills a gap that Wilson Reading and All About Reading largely leave to the family.

What they do poorly

Steep parent learning curve. The program is written for trained teachers. A parent without a reading-instruction background must either invest substantially in self-study and published OG resources, pay for formal PAF or OG training, or hire a PAF-trained tutor. The manuals do not walk the parent through the underlying linguistics of each phoneme or pattern the way Logic of English or All About Reading do. Families expecting an open-and-go experience will be unhappy.

Limited materials polish. The student materials are functional rather than engaging. There are no animated characters, no story arcs, and no game elements. A child who is reluctant to read is not cheered up by the materials themselves; motivation must come from the parent, the tutor, or the child's own drive to crack the code. For children who have experienced reading failure and arrive at PAF with low self-efficacy, the plain materials can feel like a continuation of the struggle rather than a relief.

No digital or online component. PAF is a print program. There is no software adjunct, no online tracking, and no adaptive technology. Families who want the progress monitoring automated, or whose children respond to app-based practice, must stack a separate tool, often Nessy or Reading Eggs, for that purpose.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick PAF if: your child has a dyslexia diagnosis or observed reading struggles that suggest structured-literacy remediation; you have access to a PAF-trained tutor, a co-op group, or formal training; you are willing to commit to five-day-per-week practice with high fidelity; you want evidence-based instruction and are prepared for a clinical rather than commercial look and feel; you value faith-neutral materials that do not require substitution.

• Skip PAF if: you have a typically-developing reader who does not need remediation-grade instruction; you want an open-and-go program you can deliver with minimal preparation; you prefer a program with embedded story, games, or characters to motivate a reluctant learner; you want digital delivery or adaptive software; your child would thrive with a less clinical, more gently sequenced program like All About Reading.

Cost honest assessment

PAF pricing is published on the program's materials page and, as of April 2026, runs approximately $60-$90 per level for the teacher manual, with student workbooks at roughly $12-$20 per workbook and supporting materials (word cards, game sets, readers) bringing a typical level's full materials cost to $200-$350. A family committing to the full K-5 sequence spends roughly $800-$1,500 on materials alone.

Training is a significant added cost. Introductory PAF training offered by the publisher or by affiliated OG training centers typically runs $400-$900 for a one- to two-day course per the publisher's training page as of April 2026. Families who engage a PAF-trained tutor pay market rates for reading tutoring, typically $60-$120 per hour in most US regions.

Compared to Barton Reading and Spelling (roughly $350-$400 per level, ten levels for a full program) and to Wilson Reading System (roughly $500-$800 per step kit for twelve steps), PAF is at roughly the same cost tier, with training costs added separately. All three programs are substantially more expensive than general-audience phonics but are the standard of care for dyslexic learners.

ESA eligibility notes

PAF is frequently reimbursable through state ESA marketplaces under dyslexia-remediation or special-education categories when a family carries a qualifying diagnosis. Families in Arizona using ClassWallet, Florida's Step Up For Students Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities, and West Virginia's Hope Scholarship have successfully purchased PAF materials and funded PAF tutoring under these categories in recent marketplace cycles. Utah's Utah Fits All and Iowa's Student First Scholarship have also covered structured-literacy programs including PAF when documented. Coverage of tutoring (as opposed to materials) is more variable and depends on the tutor's credential. As with all ESA spending, verify within the specific state marketplace before committing.

Alternatives

• Barton Reading and Spelling, a family would choose Barton over PAF because Barton is specifically designed for parent-delivery without formal training, includes scripted lessons, and offers robust phone support for families without access to a tutor.
• Wilson Reading System, a family would choose Wilson over PAF when the student is older (fourth grade and up) or when the family wants access to the more extensive Wilson certification pathway through school-based programs.
• All About Reading, a family would choose AAR over PAF when the child is at-risk but not formally dyslexic, when the family wants a less clinical look and feel, and when the parent wants a gentler entry point into structured-literacy principles.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the PAF Program's materials catalog, scope-and-sequence outline, training schedule, and sample pages at pafprogram.com in April 2026. We cross-referenced against the Windward School's published program descriptions, published structured-literacy research including the National Reading Panel report, and Understood.org's explainer on OG-based programs. Pricing and training details verified April 2026.