A Brief History of Starfall

Our website at www.starfall.com opened in September of 2002 as a free public service. Our mission is the same now as it was then: To help children learn to read by creating an atmosphere of fun and enthusiasm. Our games employ visual, auditory, and kinesthetic interaction that are especially successful with special education and English language learners (ESL, ELL, ELD).

As soon as we opened our website, teachers from all around the world wrote us about how successful our website was in motivating their students.

A number of teachers wrote us about how they captured the excitement of Starfall in their classrooms by developing lesson plans based on our online activities. "All of my kindergarten students are reading," wrote a teacher in Texas. Some teachers used small groups; others taught as a whole class. Both styles were apparently successful. That’s why we decided in May of 2004 to form a task force of volunteers to help us develop a full kindergarten curriculum.

Our group of volunteers expanded each year until finally in 2008 the team expanded to over 150 teachers in 50 schools with over 5000 students. It may be one of the biggest volunteer efforts of its kind in the world.

In May of 2009 Starfall's complete Kindergarten Reading and Language Arts Curriculum was released. The program incorporates phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension in a way that develops feelings of wonderment and play rather than using rote learning. English Language Learners and Struggling Readers learn alongside their peers. It is offered to schools at an extremely low price. Many of our books sell for less than one dollar. The Starfall curriculum meets or exceeds most state standards.

In June of 2009 we opened a new "sister" website at more.starfall.com that is supported by members who pay a modest fee to join. Licenses for this educational website are available at low cost to schools.

Accolades

Starfall is recognized and highly rated by experts. Starfall was the first Internet site to be recognized by Children's Software & New Media Review as the highest rated product in their Early Elementary category, spring 2004, surpassing all CD-ROM software. The Reading Teacher named Starfall.com one of "Five Internet sites too good to miss" (May 2006). Homeschool.com has repeatedly recognized Starfall as one of their top five educational websites.

The Starfall Team

Starfall was founded by Stephen Schutz, who himself had difficulty learning to read as a child but went on to graduate from MIT and earn a PhD in physics at Princeton University. Starfall is supported by the Polis-Schutz family. Stephen Schutz and poet Susan Polis Schutz founded Blue Mountain Arts publishing company in 1970 and together with their son, Jared Polis, created the popular electronic greeting card company, bluemountain.com. The Polis-Schutz family shares a passion for education. Susan Polis Schutz was a teacher in New Jersey and New York City in the 1960s, while Jared Polis served on the Colorado State Board of Education.

Starfall is produced by a dedicated and talented international team of educators, artists, designers, animators, and musicians led by Brandi Chase. The Starfall computer engineering team is led by Roger Wilson.

EDUCATORS: Dr. Karen Cole, Joan Elliott, Myrna Estes, Pam Ferguson, Judy Goetze, Stephanie Riess, and Heidi Suburu.   ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS: Matthew Baca, Ric Beemer, Dale Beisel, Marc Buchanan, Kimberly Cooper, Craig Deeley, Catherine George, Faith Gowan, Stefan Gruber, Heather Hogan, David Lebow, Debby Lee, Frank Lee, Claire Lenth, Gina and Art Morgan of AMGG, Julie Anne Quinsay, Michael Ramirez, Jared Ramos, Scott Stebbins, and Triska Wasser.   MUSIC: Randy Graves, Keith Heldman and Richard James.   ENGINEERS: Kerry DeZell, Tom Meyer, Steve Patschke, Larry Moiola, and Troy Tazbaz.   OTHERS: Starfall also wishes to thank... Karen Bidgood, Tad Elliott, and our purchasing, customer service, and warehouse teams.