Amira is science in action

Amira began decades ago, born from research out of Carnegie Mellon University and developed by experts in the Science of Reading and in AI. That work turns reading science into classroom-ready assessment, instruction and practice.

Read the research

Illustration of a brain with connected neural pathways

Built to model how a student’s brain learns to read. Every interaction is carefully pre-vetted by reading experts.

Amira began decades ago in research out of Carnegie Mellon University, as a result of Project Listen.

Where Amira came from Explore the research
  • Listensanalyses how the reading is working while the child is still reading
  • Adaptsadjusts the assessment as it goes, to cut fatigue and raise accuracy
  • Combinesdecoding, phonological awareness and oral fluency, not one of the three

Amira is built for how the brain learns to read

Every component of Amira’s architecture reflects decades of research and cognitive science. Four abilities, each with a job.

Amira holding a tablet, from the original Science of Reading page
  • Listen

    Advanced speech recognition captures every oral reading moment, which is the only way to know what a child actually did rather than what they selected.

  • Decide

    Reinforcement learning is what lets Amira guide and scaffold word reading, fluency and comprehension, giving real-time support and recommending the best next instructional move.

  • Dialog

    A comprehension model gives Amira the ability to guide and scaffold while the child is still reading, not afterwards.

  • Classify

    Custom models detect reading errors, fluency and dyslexia risk from what was heard.

See the science in action

Science Creates Coherence Across the Amira Reading Suite

Amira ISIP Assessâ„¢ | Real-Time Assessment That Reads Between the Lines

Amira doesn’t just score reading, it understands it. Built on models of phonological processing, Amira listens to students read aloud and analyzes how the brain is working in real time.

  • Dynamically adjusts the assessment to reduce fatigue and increase accuracy
  • Flags early risk indicators and delivers actionable data for instruction
  • Combines decoding tasks, phonological awareness, and oral fluency
Amira ISIP Assessâ„¢ | Real-Time Assessment That Reads Between the Lines

Amira Instruct™ | Smarter Instruction, Aligned to the Brain’s Learning Pathways

Amira identifies how many exposures each student needs to master a skill, then adjusts instruction accordingly. The result? Time-to-progress is faster and instructional minutes go further.

  • Maps fluency, attention, and working memory to guide pacing and scaffolds
  • Aligns to your curriculum, standards, and instructional calendar
  • Pinpoints the number of exposures each student requires for skill mastery
Amira Instruct™ | Smarter Instruction, Aligned to the Brain’s Learning Pathways

Amira Tutorâ„¢ | Multisensory Coaching That Builds Skilled Readers

Amira acts like a reading coach beside every student, guiding oral reading, delivering real-time feedback, and developing reading through structured practice.

  • Responds within milliseconds with scaffolded micro-interventions
  • Reinforces decoding, fluency, comprehension, and other contributors to reading success
  • Engages multiple modalities (auditory, visual, motor) to deepen learning
Amira Tutorâ„¢ | Multisensory Coaching That Builds Skilled Readers

Assessment Uncovers a 360° Degree View of the Student Reading Brain

Amira ISIP Assess™ doesn’t just measure progress — it uncovers the why behind student struggles, giving teachers actionable, Science of Reading-grounded data instantly and providing a 360° diagnostic profile of a student’s reading brain, completed in minutes.

  • Oral Reading Fluency with Miscue Analysis

    Captures accuracy, rate, prosody, and error types to reveal decoding vs. language gaps.

  • Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

    Segmenting, blending, and manipulation tasks diagnose foundational skills.

  • Phonics & Word Recognition

    Pinpoints grapheme-phoneme correspondences, decoding efficiency, and word recognition issues.

  • Vocabulary & Morphology

    Detects gaps in vocabulary breadth and morphological awareness (prefixes, suffixes, roots).

  • Listening & Reading Comprehension

    Measures literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension, aligned to Simple View of Reading.

  • Dyslexia Risk Screener

    Early-warning indicators validated against gold-standard screeners.

Science of Reading is Amira’s DNA

Amira was built from neuroscience and three decades of Science of Reading research, making Scarborough’s Reading Rope, the Simple View of Reading, and Duke’s Active View integral to its design. Amira’s reports and recommendations are structured around Science of Reading strands, which is why it has so much credibility with literacy leaders.

Amira Tutorâ„¢ Provides Instant, 1:1 Interventions

Continuous Progress Monitoring : Every tutoring session doubles as formative assessment, updating growth trajectories in real time.

  • Delivers immediate, individualized feedback and micro-interventions as the child reads.
  • Mirrors expert reading specialists by scaffolding phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension.
  • Provides 90+ SoR-aligned scaffolds (e.g., Elkonin boxes, onset-rime practice, modeled rereading, vocabulary clarification).
  • Engages students with interactive, conversational tutoring that builds confidence and independence.
Amira Tutorâ„¢ Provides Instant, 1:1 Interventions

Amira Instructâ„¢ Curriculum-Coherent Teacher Support

  • Generates curriculum-aligned lesson plans and small-group activities within minutes.
  • Aligns every recommendation to district pacing, scope, and state standards, protecting curriculum investments.
  • Creates Individual Reading Improvement Plans (IRIPs) automatically in state-compliant formats.
  • Provides continuous data dashboards from student to district level, supporting MTSS/RTI workflows.
Amira Instructâ„¢ Curriculum-Coherent Teacher Support

Reading science teachers can see and use

The Reading Rope Report: A Simple View of Complex Data

Amira’s Reading Rope Report transforms complex literacy data into a clear, teacher-ready map of student skill development. Inspired by Dr. Hollis Scarborough’s Reading Rope, the report breaks reading mastery into its essential strands—helping educators see not just what students know, but what to teach next and delivers a dynamic, research-aligned visualization of each student’s progress across the strands that matter most:

  • Phonological Awareness
  • Decoding & Word Recognition
  • Oral Reading Fluency
  • Vocabulary & Language Comprehension
  • Reading Comprehension
The Reading Rope Report: A Simple View of Complex Data

Skills Status Report: Spot Trends to Take Action

The Skill Status Report is an important tool within the Amira Reading Suite , designed to help educators track student mastery , differentiate instruction , and make intervention decisions by providing an at-a-glance summary of each student’s performance across foundational reading skills. Skill-Level Breakdown : The report displays a grid of literacy subskills (e.g., phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension) and each skill is color-coded based on the student’s current performance and risk level. Real-Time Updates : After each benchmark, progress monitoring assessment, or tutoring session, the report is automatically updated. It reflects live data, offering teachers current insights into where students are growing and where they are at risk.

Skills Status Report: Spot Trends to Take Action
Using Amira has significantly improved the accuracy of our instruction and interventions. The dashboards in Amira give us clear recommendations, eliminating the need to sift through complex reports. We've already seen the impact, with measurable gains in reading growth.
Dr. Brayden SavageSuperintendent, Western Heights Public Schools, OK

Trusted and Recognized by Leading Experts

SRIUT Health HoustonDigital PromiseCarnegie Mellon UniversityInstitute of Education Sciences

One science, across the whole suite

Assess, Instruct and Tutor are not three products that happen to share a login. They are the same model of how reading develops, applied at three moments.

Explore the Reading Suite

Still deciding? Read the research The Amira Reading Suite Student data privacy and security