Career Educator Turned Author and President of Learning Materials Company

Kenneth Campbell (BAE ’71, MED ’80, Spec. Ed.) taught for 36 years before becoming president of the Great Leaps Reading and Fluency Materials company.

According to the website, “Ken was teaching children with learning disabilities at North Marion Middle School and realized that both classroom time and solutions were lacking in helping children learn to read. He began developing and practicing his Great Leaps Reading Program in 1991. A well-known professor from the University of Florida, Cecil Mercer, was touring local schools and witnessed an intriguing incident at Ken’s school. Dr. Mercer heard a young man tell the principal, Scott Hackmyer, that he wanted an assembly time moved so that it would not interfere with his reading lesson.”  After witnessing this and other events involving Campbell’s program, Dr. Mercer performed a trial at Buchholz High School.  “The trial was a huge success,” as stated on the website, “Ken was urged to publish and Great Leaps was launched”.

The Great Leaps program is in all fifty states and over forty countries.  They are one of three companies chosen for reading interventions in New York City and have received acceptance from the Florida Center for Reading Research and the Minnesota Literary Council.

For more about the Great Leaps program, click here.