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Haverhill Public Schools has been accepted into a staff training program to better accommodate students with dyslexia.
Haverhill School Committee members learned recently the district won a grant from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Haverhill to work with the Dyslexia Institute to build and improve the school system’s dyslexia action plan. The Institute is operated by Crafting Minds, a nonprofit built by developmental psychologist Dr. Melissa Orkin and others at the Tufts Center for Reading and Language Research.
ELA Curriculum Supervisor Jennifer Peterson said the program consists of a hybrid 45-hour course taking place between April and October. A team, consisting of special and English Language Arts educators, had its first session in October and its first in-person session Nov. 22 in Wakefield.
“This institute is designed to support our team as we plan and develop and expand or revise our dyslexia plan that we have already,” Peterson said. “We do have things in place already but we can always do things better, so we’re going to go and learn more about it. The Institute will provide educators research-based practices on early literacy screenings which we have with i-Ready. On instruction, indemnification of students, some specialized interventions we could provide and some support for students with reading difficulties, learning disabilities as well as dyslexia.”
Though the district currently screens students’ reading skills through i-Ready three times a year, Peterson cautioned that i-Ready only flags students for “some sort” of reading difficulty and does not diagnose dyslexia. She added the aim of the program is for the district to learn about “better and new ways to do things” and have a consistent approach across elementary schools.
As WHAV reported in May, 13% of district students are multilingual learners. Committee member Richard J. Rosa questioned how educators would screen multilingual learners. Executive Director of Student Support Services Deb Ibanez outlined the process.
“We certainly take that into account when we’re looking at the results of that. We certainly will not pick up for intervention right away at level one ML’s and sometimes even level two, we give them some time. Those beginners need some time in the classroom before we intervene. They just need instruction around the language. It’s not necessarily they are having some sort of difficulty, they just need to learn the language,” she explained.
Ibanez also answered a concern raised by Committee member Jill Story about whether the district has adequate staffing for students who need additional support. “We’re able to cover it right now with all of the students that are identified,” Ibanez said. “We have three reading specialists in all of our buildings so they are able to take all of those students, usually. There’s never enough help, we’re always welcome to have more but they will take them for a cycle of intervention, using some different resources. We’re hoping to learn about other resources that we may be able to provide specifically for students that might have dyslexia.”
Peterson and Ibanez were joined by Special Education Supervisor for K-8 Natalie Campisano, Bradford Elementary School Literary Coach Rachel White, Silver Hill Elementary School Literary Coach Nicole Powers and John C. Tilton School Reading Specialist Jennifer Tremblay are participating in the program.
The team will present its final plan to the Institute in April with plans to present it to the School Committee at a later date.