Page 37 - EdViewptsSpring2020

Bridging the Literacy Gap Between

General Education and Special Education:

A Response to the Dyslexia Law

By Dr. Michelle Terzini-Hollar, Supervisor of the Child Study Team and Julie

Worgul, Structured Literacy Dyslexia Specialist, Demarest Public Schools

During the 2014-2015 aca- delivery of interventions across all learn- literacy interventions that appropriately
demic year, school districts ing profiles in both general and special corresponded to learners’ profiles, the
district developed the following protocol.
education environments. The objective
across the state of New was not only to provide instruction to At the beginning of the year, students
Jersey were responsible for students who presented with statisti- in kindergarten through fifth grade
cally significant and pervasive read-
implementing provisions of ing difficulties, but also to assist those are now assessed using a universal
screening and monitoring instrument
three laws related to dys- students who needed extra literacy (i.e. Aimsweb, Dibles, STAR). Students
supports within specifically identified
new to the district are screened within
lexia. PL 2013, c. 131, 105, and 210 areas. At that time, the literacy needs of 30 days of their arrival. The objective
are designed to incorporate the Interna- general education students were being of screening is to look for deficits in
tional Dyslexia Association’s definition addressed through a basic skills reading early literacy skills, oral reading fluency,
of dyslexia into Chapter 14 of Title 6A program. The reading deficits among silent reading fluency, vocabulary, and
of the Administrative Code to ensure special education students were being reading comprehension. These results
that specific staff members receive two addressed in a resource replacement are incorporated into the literacy matrix,
hours of reading disabilities professional setting with a variety of multisensory which is comprised of several data
development, and to secure appropri- tools. Resource replacement teachers points including the student’s reading
ate screening and reading interventions were charged with targeting identified level, teacher driven data, teacher
for students. This mandate provided a literacy gaps and teaching curricular- recommendations, and the universal
unique opportunity to reconstruct the based concepts. In order to cast a larger screening results. This literacy matrix
net and ensure the delivery of specific

Educational Viewpoints -35- Spring 2020