Our Founder
Stephan D. Tattum received an undergraduate degree in education at Eastern Illinois in 1969 and received his Masters Degree in Education at George Washington University in 1972 with an emphasis in special education.
Denver Academy
In 1973, Steve Tattum became one of the directors of Denver Academy. He was the founder of the Denver Academy Academic programs and was instrumental in developing Denver Academy’s curriculum as well as its three academic streams. These streams were based on three different areas of research:
- Research on effective schools by Ron Edmond.
- Research on cultural literacy by Dr. Hirsch.
- Research on progressive education by Dewey and Gardner.
F.A.S.T. Reading
Steve Tattum was involved in all areas of reading at Denver Academy. He was a teacher in three different Orton-Gillingham methods, Lindamood-Bell reading system, directed reading with basal literature books, and whole language. He also studied Reading Recovery and Phonographics. In 1997, he synthesized the research and underlying principles of all reading approaches and created the F.A.S.T. Reading System for schools.
Home School Program
In 2009, Steve Tattum has created the Phonics Fair, a systematic phonics program for home school instruction. This program is the next step in the evolution of effective instruction for students struggling to discover the underlying principles for reading and spelling.