Appeared in The Herald-Sun October 15, 2009

By Matthew E. Milliken

DURHAM -- The Hill Center threw a housewarming party on a cool, rainy Wednesday afternoon.

The center, which is devoted to helping K-12 students with diagnosed learning disabilities or attention-deficit disorders, was celebrating the opening of its new Kirby-Horton Teacher Training Center. The 15,000-square-foot building is linked to the Hill Center's 11-year-old headquarters at 3200 Pickett Road and is meant to extend the organization's outreach programs.

While the Hill Center runs a half-day school for about 140 challenged learners -- the students spend the rest of their time at their regular public or private schools -- much of its efforts are focused on training others in the methods that the organization has successfully used since its founding in 1977.

'With the Kirby-Horton Teacher Training Center, we have the opportunity to open a new chapter in our mission of transforming children with learning disabilities into confident learners,' Brad Brinegar, chairman of the Hill Center's board of directors, told a group of perhaps 100 donors and partners.

Howard Lee, the former Chapel Hill mayor and state senator who is now executive director of the governor's Education Cabinet, spoke for about 25 minutes on the Hill Center and education in North Carolina. He said that he has long supported and will continue to promote public education partnerships with the Hill Center.

Lee was full of praise for the Kirby-Horton building. 'I am just blown over by what I am seeing here in the form of this facility,' he said. 'I think this is just wonderful.'

The education official also called the new teacher training center, which cost $4.6 million and was funded by private donations, 'equal to any corporate training center I think I've seen anywhere.'

The new building features touch-sensitive SMART Boards, which can project computer presentations, and Internet-capable cameras. The cameras can be used for videoconferences or to record training sessions for future use.

After Lee's talk, visitors were free to wander the facility and watch the technology in action. One room featured a live videoconference with a teacher who is using Hill Center methods at a school in El Salvador.

The center also has 'replication sites' in Greenville, Wilmington, Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Geneva, Switzerland.

That's in addition to numerous public school partnerships.

When two Durham public school teachers were asked whether they have seen Hill Center methods help their students, one waved her hands to convey adulation and mock worship.

'We love it, we love it,' said Linda Jones, who started learning the Hill Center approach in 2003. 'We have seen improvements in their reading and also in their [end-of-grade] scores.'

'When you give them that boost in reading, we notice their math scores going up,' said Cynthia Webb, noting that many standardized math tests involve word problems.

Jeanne Huntley is an assistant superintendent with the Carteret County school system. Struggling Carteret students taught with Hill Center programs have progressed two or three grade levels in the space of a year.

'We have seen incredible growth of students,' Huntley said. 'But more importantly are the anecdotal response that we get from families of first-time readers -- even for high-school students.'

'They've been with us all along the way,' Lisa Kittrell, Carteret's elementary education director, said of Hill trainers. 'They come back, they model, they work with our teachers whenever they have questions, which is different than a lot of other training that you get.'

Katherine Mabe is implementing Hill Center methods in Brunswick County schools. She was thrilled by a recent videoconference between teachers in her district and the Kirby-Horton center.

'It was very exciting,' Mabe said. 'So we're already seeing the benefits, and we're going to put in some sessions where we can continue that. We're going to try to do it at least once a month.'