ERIC Number: EJ1281906
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0148-432X
EISSN: N/A
Identifying and Teaching Students with Significant Reading Problems
Vaughn, Sharon; Fletcher, Jack M.
American Educator, v44 n4 p4-11, 40 Win 2020-2021
The degree to which a student expresses a reading difficulty is always an interaction between the child's opportunity to learn (due to absences, instructional quality, or other issues) and the extent of the student's reading impairment. Thus, youngsters who are provided a genuine opportunity to learn to read--including high-quality, explicit, evidence-based instruction--and yet still present with significant reading difficulties are likely to have a severe reading impairment. In contrast, children who have not consistently been able to access high-quality, evidence-based instruction and present with significant reading difficulties are likely to have reading problems that could have been prevented and still can be remediated. This difference is of the utmost importance. Currently, there are students with preventable reading problems who are suffering academically and emotionally, and who are placed in special education often to receive accommodations without effective remediation. And there are students with severe reading disabilities or dyslexia who are not getting the intensive interventions they need--in part because special education is overwhelmed with large numbers of students who do not actually have reading disabilities. These are systemic problems--and that is why the authors of this article have proposed a new, seamless, three-tiered system of general and special education to address them. The article discusses how a supportive, integrated general and special education system can be implemented. Six steps that teachers can implement in their classrooms to support students with reading difficulties or with mild to moderate disabilities or dyslexia are provided.
Descriptors: Identification, Reading Difficulties, Reading Instruction, Response to Intervention, Screening Tests, Progress Monitoring, Educational Change, Mild Intellectual Disability, Moderate Intellectual Disability, Dyslexia, Teaching Methods
American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001. Tel: 202-879-4420; e-mail: ae@aft.org; Web site: http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: P50HD052117