For a small corporation like the American Reading Company (ARC), the goal is simple, but the challenge is enormous. How do you introduce a textbook program into school districts to help elevate reading levels when few districts are willing to "gamble" on a small company and its programs?

Through either force of habit or a tendency toward caution, most district superintendents and department heads will go through a representative at a better-known company, pick one textbook, and plug ...