Quarterly Newsletter October 2021
Dyslexia Awareness Month |
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California has devoted increasing attention and resources to the needs of students with dyslexia in recent years. In 2017, the California Dyslexia Guidelines were published with the goal of improving educational services and supports for students with dyslexia. The California Dyslexia Initiative (CDI) is a continuation of these efforts. The 2020-21 state budget included $4 million dollars to fund the CDI and promote the development of dyslexia-related resources for California students and educators.
After an application and interview process, the California Department of Education (CDE), the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), and the State Board of Education (SBE) selected the Sacramento County Office of Education to lead this work. The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Dyslexia Center was selected as the IHE partner.
SCOE is partnering with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Dyslexia Center. The UCSF Dyslexia Center is developing and testing a digital screening system to identify reading difficulties in order to provide reading intervention as early as possible and change the trajectory for millions of students who might otherwise fail. This tool will be made free and publicly available to California schools when it is ready.
We are continuing to develop knowledge and resources around the field of literacy and dyslexia and are committed to sharing that information broadly in order to support students and families. |
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A Note From the CDI Project Lead Tami Wilson, Director Sacramento County Office of Education
"The California Dyslexia Initiative (CDI) provides an extraordinary opportunity to support educators in developing a common language to talk about teaching reading, addressing the continuum of needs of struggling readers, and teaching students with dyslexia. It allows us to explore evidence-based practices and to calibrate our knowledge and language so that we can talk with specificity about learning gaps and provide appropriate and effective interventions. Through our partnership with the UCSF Dyslexia Center, we will create a bridge from research to practice, bringing what is known by scientists to educational practitioners across California, and in return, change the trajectory for students who might otherwise fail to learn to read." |
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Did you know that October is Dyslexia Awareness Month? Advocates, researchers, educators, and families work tirelessly to bring awareness to this specific learning disability that affects as many as 15-20% of the population (IDA, 2008).
Register for our seven-part expert webinar series to learn more about dyslexia and literacy (more information below).
The International Dyslexia Association provides the following definition of dyslexia:
"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge." (IDA, 2002)
International Dyslexia Association (IDA) provides the definition of dyslexia, which was adopted by the United States National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development. (Lyon, Shaywitz, and Shaywitz, 2003) |
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"The California Department of Education believes that the following principles are essential to educating students with dyslexia. These principles form the foundation of the guidelines and inform the perspective from which the guidelines were written."
(California Department of Education, 2017) |
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"Students with dyslexia need a knowledge-based and active system of support that includes families, educators, and other professionals.
Learning needs related to dyslexia exist on a continuum; therefore, systems of support must be designed to meet the diversity of students’ needs.
An educational system should address the needs of individual students within an integrated and tiered system of support.
An interdisciplinary team approach is most effective when it takes advantage of everyone’s expertise and includes all team members in decision making, problem solving, and instructional leadership.
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| Students who have dyslexia are “general education students” first, can be educated in general education classrooms, and benefit from a wide variety of supports. Those supports must include a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to reading and language instruction that is implemented by trained educators. Required supports may include various accommodations and assistive technology. Students with dyslexia sometimes require special education.
Guiding principles for educating students with dyslexia must be anchored in programs that are evidence based, whenever possible, and that incorporate structured literacy instruction that is comprehensive, systematic, explicit, cumulative, and multisensory." |
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2021-2022 Expert Webinar Series: Understanding Dyslexia and Literacy |
Join us for a FREE expert webinar series hosted by the Sacramento County Office of Education, project lead for the California Dyslexia Initiative (CDI), in partnership with Glean Education. Learn more about why some students struggle to learn to read, how to recognize risk factors in your students, and how to support reading difficulties and dyslexia in the classroom.
Register for this FREE, seven-part webinar series and learn from our nation’s experts as they build our understanding on how to support struggling readers in all tiers of instruction. Follow-up discussion and activity guides will accompany each webinar to support deeper exploration of the content presented.
Zoom link will be sent with registration confirmation |
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 | Dr. Jack Fletcher University of Houston
Identifying Students at Risk for Reading Difficulty
Dr. Fletcher provides an overview of dyslexia, its prevalence among students, and the role of screening in identifying students at risk for reading difficulty.
Click on Dr. Fletcher's image above to access a recording of the webinar and companion document on the CDI website. |
| | | Dr. Hugh Catts Florida State University, Florida Center for Reading Research
Preventing Reading Difficulties Through Early Intervention
Dr. Catts discusses the importance of preventing reading difficulties through early identification and intervention.
Click on Dr. Catts' image above to access a recording of the webinar and companion document on the CDI website. |
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| "Through these combined efforts, great strides have been made in screening and intervention, and it is now becoming increasingly possible to prevent dyslexia. Again, when we say prevent dyslexia, we do not mean to alter the neurological attributes that underlie dyslexia, but rather reduce or eliminate the severe reading problems that characterize the disorder." Catts & Hogan (2020) |
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For general questions and information, please email us at:
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