For four years, teachers at Austintown Elementary School have been practicing a new way to help their students learn.

"We had teachers learn all about it in something called letter's training," Dr. William Young, Director of Curriculum for the Science of Reading program said.

This training equipped them to understand the science behind how a child learns to read.

"There's a lot of focus on phonemic awareness," Young said. "A lot of emphasis on phonics, it's that idea of language comprehension is really important," he said.

Young said several times a year the teachers monitor their students progress and that the proof is in the pudding.

Each year since beginning this program, there's been an increase in state test scores.

In 2021, 50 percent of students were proficient or higher in reading. In 2022 that number jumped to 69 percent. In 2023 it was 79 percent and just last year, the numbers reached 82 percent.

A significant jump like that was enough to grab the attention of Governor Mike DeWine.

"Their focus on literacy achievement is making a real difference for their kids. In two years, they more than doubled the number of kindergarten students who are on track with reading," DeWine said.

To say the teachers are proud would be an understatement.

"It means so much for the effort they put in and to take all that learning from all those years and to see it paying off means so much," Young said.