In August of last year, Susan Moore's then 6-year-old son, Will, couldn't read due to several learning disabilities. But by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, Will was reading and enjoying children's books.

Moore, of Tarboro, said her miracle came after she moved Will and his 9-year-old brother, Thomas, to Chapel Hill that summer so Will could attend The Hill Center, a nonprofit school in Durham that has successfully been educating children with learning disabilities since 1977.

She said The Hill Center's methodology works, and her child is proof.

"I'm 110 percent convinced that it works," she said.

Moore, a co-founder of ENCMOMS, a support group for area parents of learning disabled children, was one of about 35 people who crowded a conference room at White's International Trucks Sunday to hear a presentation hosted by the group on the benefits of The Hill Center and its proven techniques. Directors of The Hill Center were invited by ENCMOMS to give a general presentation on the center and its methodology, and the possibility of its implementation locally.

During the meeting, everyone from concerned parents to Wilson County school board members showed up to listen as Michele Sparrow, associate director/vice president of the school, and Angela Duncan, director of outreach programs for the school, spoke about the school's unique teaching method -- the Hill Methodology -- and how it can be implemented at local schools.

The school, Sparrow said, works as a half-day school where students get needed instruction in the morning, then return to their regular schools in the afternoon. The school's programs, which teach about 180 children, grades kindergarten through 12, from 47 schools, on average only have to keep students from two to three years before they catch up to their classmates.

"It's really important that students are given a curriculum so that they can be successful, and so they can make up that time that's been lost," Sparrow said.

The Hill Center offers academic, summer, enrichment and tutoring programs, Sparrow said, and it has also implemented its program at other schools, including helping to create half-day models in Greenville, Wilmington and even as far away as Geneva, Switzerland, and San Salvador, El Salvador.

Schools in Brunswick, Davie, Carteret and Durham counties, among others, have implemented the school's math, reading and literacy programs, she said.

She added that the program also works to help teachers who learn the methodology become fluent enough to spread it to other teachers and schools elsewhere, thus perpetuating the program.

Duncan talked about the Hill Methodology specifically, as well its adapted programs Hill RAP (Reading Achievement Program), HillWrite (Written Language Achievement Program), HillMath (Math Achievement Program).

Duncan explained how the Hill Methodology, for the reading components, uses guided practice to help students recall spelling patterns, sounds, grammar definitions, punctuation and capitalization rules and composition strategies. The math component works to help students gain automatic recollection of math rules and formulas and uses word problems to help students solve math problems.

The program places great emphasis on measuring childrens' performance and progress while offering praise, she said.

"If you can't tell me how you're measuring my child's performance, you're not doing anything to help me," she said.

She added that studies have shown the program methodology helps learning disabled students learn faster than those without such help.

Following the presentation, both women fielded questions from audience members about the program and its benefits.

Christine L. Fitch, Wilson County Board of Education member, asked specifically about the time commitment for teachers to be certified to teach the Hill Methodology and adapted progams, and thanked ENCMOMS and The Hill Center for being invited to the event.

Sparrow laid out the guidelines for teacher commitment for the program.

"I thank you for the presentation-- and I'm not here as a parent, I'm here as a board member for Wilson County Schools -- for having been invited to learn more," Fitch said.

By Antonio Velarde/Daily Times Staff Writer