Early reading Screening: What Parents Need to Know

The Thames Valley District School Board is using a new special Literacy Tool to identify pupils who are struggling readers and may be at risk for reading difficulties. The Tool is part of a revised language curriculum introduced in Ontario Schools in Fall 2023 in the final report of A Public Inquiry that Recommented Early Reading Screening To Catch Students Before Fall Behind On Reading Skills.

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The Big Picture

The Ontario Human Rights Began ITS Commission “Right to Read” Public Inquiry Into Human Rights Issues Assignment Students With Reading Disabilities in Ontario Schools in 2019. Standardized testing then Showed 25 per cent of Ontario’s grade 3 Pupils Were Falling Short of Provincial Reading Standards. The Number Spiked to 53 per cent for pupils with disabilities such as dyslexia.

The right to read final report in february 2022 Said Ontario School Boards Were using Outdated Science to Teach Kids Literacy Skills and “Too Many Kids Were Not Reading Well.

“This Leaves Students at Risk for significant Long Difficulties,” The Report Said.

“What Came Out. . . WAS THAT, in Ontario, we Were Doing Good Things, but there Were Areas We NEEDED to do differently, ”Thames Valley District School Board Superintend Kevin Auckland Said at the time.

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Thames Valley Kindergarters, First-and Second-Graders have undergone The First Phase of the Screening Process, Approved by the International Dyslexia Association, That Auckland Calls “Groundbreaking.”

Why Screen for Literacy Skills?

The Universal Literacy Screener – Thames Valley Uses A Version Called Acadience – is “Quick and Easy” to implement in a standardized Assessment of Students, Board Officials Say.

“It is an excellent way to identify kids who are at risk of reading difficulty,” Auckland Said in a presentation tuesday at a board committee meeting.

All Screening is Instantly available, so School Teams have immediate access to the information, he said.

It’s designed to “Identify and validate” The Need for Additional Instructional Support, Auckland Said.

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The Education Minister-Mandated Screening Process Began at the Board Last Fall.

What parents need to know

Parents Already SHOULD Have Received WORD from their child’s School on the Results of Their Child’s Screening. If they have, they should contact their child’s main or teacher, trustee lori-anne pizzolato said.

Results of the First Screening also will report on their child’s februry report Card. If a Second Screening is conductive, results will appear on the second postponement card.

Who’s been screen?

All Pupils in Year 2 of Kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 Were Screened by the End of 2024. More than 17,000 Thames Valley Students Were Screened, Including 5.601 Students in Year 2 of Kindergarten, 5.736 in grade 1 and 5.799 in grade 2.

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Who do the screening?

Teachers Will Screen Students, Auckland Said.

Sale April 2024, 1.472 Educators have been trained to administer the Literacy Screener. That included 79 Speech Language Pathologists and Learning Support Services Staff.

All Kindergarten Teachers, Early Childhood Educators, Grade 1 and 2 Teachers Were Trained Last October in data interpretation and intervention.

Next Steps

Schools are reviewing outcomes with support staff, Auckland Said.

Early Reading Screener System Staff Are in Schools Providing Support for Students who Did not meet the benchmark, he said.

A Followup Mid-Year Screener Will Be Administered to Those Students, Board Officials Say.

[email protected]

@Heatheratlfp

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