School Literacy System Checklist
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal's " Right to Read" report (2022) on literacy practices in Ontario public schools provides a roadmap showing how to create effective literacy systems. I used the report's recommendations to create the "School Literacy System Checklist." The checklist is a simple tool to help educators determine if the qualities of effective literacy systems are present or needed in their school.
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There are 5 areas that we need to consider when creating an effective school literacy system:
1. Curriculum and instruction that use evidence-based practices
2. Early screening of all students
3. Reading interventions that are early, evidence-based, intensive, and systematic
4. Accommodations (which are not used as a substitute for teaching students to read)
5. Professional assessments (which are timely and based on clear, transparent, written criteria that focus on the student’s response to intervention)
Curriculum and Instruction
Quality Excerpt from the Right to Read Inquiry Report Is it in place?
Systematic and Progressive
Teachers’ instruction in letter-sound relationships and how to use these to read words should be planned and sequential so that children have time to learn, practice and master them.
Access to evidence-based curriculum and programs
Teachers need to be provided with an evidence-based curriculum and programs that lay out the scope and sequence of phonics instruction best suited to developing readers, and instructional routines and lesson plans that can build confidence in their phonics teaching. This frees the teacher from scrambling to develop what and how they will teach each day, to focusing on teaching it well, and gauging students’ progress.
Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
The National Reading Panel found that teaching two phonemic awareness skills (blending and segmentation) had stronger effects than teaching more and varied phonological awareness skills. Critically, incorporating letters as early as possible, when students have learned grapheme-phoneme associations, into instruction teaching children how to blend and segment phonemes, is more effective for increasing children’s phonemic awareness, decoding, and spelling skills.
Explicit instruction in phonics
High-quality, systematic phonics work means teaching beginner readers:
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Grapheme/phoneme (letter/sound) correspondences (the alphabetic principle) in a clearly defined, incremental sequence
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To apply the skill of blending phonemes in order as they sound out each grapheme
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To segment words into their constituent phonemes to spell out the graphemes that represent those phonemes.[669]
Phonological awareness teaching begins in pre-kindergarten
It is taught through methods “such as singing and learning nursery rhymes, learning to recognize and produce rhyming words, and playing with the chunks of sound that make up words, like syllables and beginning sounds.”
Phonological awareness taught in kindergarten
The evidence is clear that instruction in phonological awareness, letter knowledge and sounds, and simple decoding should be included in daily instruction for all Kindergarten students.
Students need to develop the critical phonemic awareness skills of identifying phonemes in the beginning, end and middle of words, and then blending and segmenting individual phonemes in words
Kindergarten students should “be taught, using engaging and age-appropriate methods, letter names and letter-sound associations, and how to use these to read simple words.
instruction in phonemic awareness, sound-letter knowledge and phonics
Alphabetic knowledge taught kindergarten
Alphabetic knowledge: For children just starting formal schooling, teachers need to provide instruction and activities that help all students learn the letter names, sounds and shapes and to start printing. Teachers can help children have fun with building their alphabet knowledge.
Teaching
vocabulary
Teach using explicit instruction, morphology, word families, and multisensory teaching methods
Teaching strategies for reading comprehension
“...teaching cognitive strategies [was found] to be an effective component of reading comprehension instruction.”
Teachers are trained in effective reading instruction practices
What good reading teachers need to know:
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Knowing the basics of reading psychology and reading development
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Understanding language structure for both word recognition and language comprehension
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Applying best practices concerning all components of reading instruction
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Using validated, reliable, efficient assessments to inform classroom teaching
Ineffective Instructional Practices
Remove these if they are in your system.
3 Cueing System
Reading science does not support approaches that rely on teaching children to read words using discovery and inquiry-based learning such as cueing systems.
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Balanced Literacy
“…balanced literacy proposes that immersing students in spoken and written language will build foundational reading skills – but significant research has not shown this to be effective for learning to read words accurately and efficiently.”
Levelled Books
"Decodable books are preferrable to levelled books because they allow new readers to develop their decoding skills rather than their guessing skills" (Audet).
Early Screening
Quality Excerpt from the Right to Read Inquiry Report Is it in place?
Evidence-based Screener
“These instruments have established reliability and validity standards to increase confidence in their effectiveness.”
The panel cited three specific screening tools and the corresponding studies that show they include measures that accurately predict future student performance. These tools are DIBELS,[888] Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP),[889] and the Texas Primary Reading Inventory.[890] The Rapid Naming Subtests of the CTOPP could also be included as these predict later word-reading accuracy and fluency difficulties.
Early – Screening in 2nd half of kindergarten
“Earlier interventions are more effective because students’ response to intervention declines as they become older.[876]”
“Schools must screen every student early (starting in Kindergarten Year 1) using evidence-based screening tools.”
Kindergarten Screener assesses letter knowledge and phonemic awareness
“Kindergarten screening batteries should include measures assessing letter knowledge and phonemic awareness”
Screening in grade 1
Screening should take place at the start and middle of the year
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“By the second semester of Grade 1, the decoding, word identification, and text reading should include speed as an outcome.”
Screening in grade 2
Screening should take place at the start and middle of the year
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“Screen students in Kindergarten through Grade 2”
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Grade 2 screener assesses word reading and passage reading and is timed
All students are screened
Universal screening makes sure all students, regardless of their family background or being noticed by teachers, are systematically flagged when foundational word-reading skills are not developing as needed.
Those administering the screener are trained to do so
"School boards make sure staff (for example, teachers) administering the screening tools receive comprehensive, sustained and job-embedded professional learning on the specific screening tool or tools that they will be administering, and on how to interpret the results."
Screener results lead led quickly to a prove evidence-based intervention for those in need
Screening tools should be used to identify students at risk of failing to learn to read words adequately, and to get these children into immediate, effective evidence-based interventions.
Ineffective Screening Practices
Remove these if they are in your system.
Wait-and-See Method
Waiting to see if a student has difficulty learning to read does not work.
Running Records
There is no evidence to support the validity of running records or related approaches. Their psychometric properties are questionable, and they fail to identify many children at risk for word-reading failure. This assessment approach does not measure the skills students should be taught to learn to read. Beginning readers should not be using meaning, structural and visual cues to read words.
Reading Interventions
Quality Excerpt from the Right to Read Inquiry Report Is it in place?
Early interventions are provided
Kindergarten to Grade 1
Later interventions are provided
Grades 2–5; 6–8; 9 and above
Effective Instruction is happening in the regular classroom
A science-based curriculum builds solid foundational word-reading, fluency and spelling skills for all students. Curriculum that promotes a different approach results in too many students needing interventions and confusion for students receiving those interventions.
Small group instruction in Tier 2
Tier 2 should be completed with a small group of students, with sufficient time and intensity for an explicit, evidence-based foundational skills program/intervention
Student progress is monitored and used to inform programming decisions
School boards should collect valid and reliable data on students’ immediate and long-term outcomes, to inform their decisions about individual student programming and efforts to evaluate program effectiveness.
Educators are properly trained
Educators providing interventions need thorough and effective training in program delivery, with initial and ongoing coaching
Interventions are available to all students who require them
School boards should make sure every school has at least one evidence-based reading intervention that can be implemented with students in each grade level and for each tier, and interventions are available to all students who require them. Students should not have to change schools to receive evidence-based interventions.
All students are screened
Universal screening makes sure all students, regardless of their family background or being noticed by teachers, are systematically flagged when foundational word-reading skills are not developing as needed.
Those administering the screener are trained to do so
School boards make sure staff (for example, teachers) administering the screening tools receive comprehensive, sustained and job-embedded professional learning on the specific screening tool or tools that they will be administering, and on how to interpret the results.
Screener results lead led quickly to a prove evidence-based intervention for those in need
Screening tools should be used to identify students at risk of failing to learn to read words adequately, and to get these children into immediate, effective evidence-based interventions.
Use R.T.I. framework
School boards should provide small-group early and later interventions (tier 2) for students when evidence-based classroom instruction (tier 1) is not adequate for them to develop average-level foundational word-reading skills. School boards should provide more intensive and individualized interventions (tier 3) to students who do not respond adequately to tier 1 instruction and 2 interventions, based on progress monitoring with standardized measures of reading. At tier 3, a professional (psychoeducational or speech-language pathology) assessment could be used to fully assess the learning challenges, but should not be required or delay tier 3 intervention.
Mandate Accountability Measures
School boards should make sure clear standards are in place to communicate with students and parents about available interventions. If a student is receiving a reading intervention, the school should communicate details about the intervention such as information about the program, the timing, expected length of the intervention, results from progress monitoring and what steps the school will take if the student does not respond well to the intervention
Collaborative Teams
School boards should build collaborative teams from personnel with knowledge and experience in the science of reading. Interdisciplinary teams may bring together special education and elementary teachers, psychologists and SLPs who have advanced their knowledge and experience in this area. These teams can develop and provide comprehensive, sustained and job-embedded professional learning on the fundamental processes related to reading, early reading skills and the needs of learners with reading difficulties.
Ineffective Reading Intervention Practices
Remove these if they are in your system.
“Wait and See”
When students in Kindergarten and/or Grade 1 are not keeping up through classroom instruction and differentiation, tier 2 interventions should be used to prevent long-term reading difficulties. Waiting to see if these students will catch up without an effective foundational skills intervention is not following evidence-based practices.
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3-Cueing System
The OHRC is concerned with school boards’ use of Reading Recovery® because it focuses on cueing systems, levelled readers and running records. There has been more research on Reading Recovery® than LLI. However, the adequacy of the program and research has been consistently contested.
Prioritizing Students
In some cases, boards prioritize interventions for students with a learning disability diagnosis, which can be difficult to receive, or get in a timely way, unless obtained privately at significant cost. Other problematic criteria include requiring students to have average to above-average intelligence and/or no other disability (such as ADHD, ASD, MID). These entry requirements are based on a mistaken belief that interventions will only be effective or be more effective for these students, which research has consistently contradicted.
Accommodations
Quality Excerpt from the Right to Read Inquiry Report Is it in place?
Use transparent and efficient accommodation procedures
Schools must never provide accommodations as a substitute for interventions that provide highly systematic and explicit reading instruction. If students need accommodations, schools should provide them together with interventions. Providing assistive technology without reading interventions is damaging, because students lose the opportunity to learn to read. It is also damaging in a more insidious way: it can mask the student’s reading difficulties.
Assistive technology is available to all students
Assistive technology (AT) accommodations, including devices like a computer tablet or smartphone, and software such as screen readers
Non-AT accommodations are available to all students
Non-AT accommodations, including, for example, extra time for tests or assignments and assistive services such as a note-taker.
Appropriate training on accommodation tools is provided
Appropriate training for the student and/or their teacher may be necessary to successfully implement accommodations
Monitoring in Place
educators should regularly monitor and evaluate them to make sure they are helping to improve the student’s learning experience and performance
Respect students’ privacy, dignity and individuality
Accommodations should not isolate or stigmatize students.
Students with learning disabilities are at increased risk of bullying, victimization, rejection and social isolation, and there is evidence that children and youth with learning disabilities are significantly more likely to be bullied than their peers.[1098] Schools must account for these circumstances when developing respectful accommodations by making sure there are proactive and reactive strategies to address bullying.
Ineffective Accomodation Practices
Remove these if they are in your system.
Free Time Grabbing
Accommodations can also be ineffective if students feel they are punitive. For example, we learned from educators and other professionals that teachers struggle with accommodating students with “extra time.” To receive extra time for an assignment or test without missing out on other lessons, students usually have to give up part or all of their recess or lunch, and “feel like they are being punished and are missing out.”
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Hard to Use
Some students and parents noted that text-to-speech software with a computerized voice can be hard to understand. One parent said that voice-to-text software can be “sloppy in a classroom setting” because it “picks up all noise in the room” and “students are not shown how to use it effectively to communicate in writing.”
Long Passwords
Sometimes passwords assigned to students for their devices are unchangeable and “are something in the neighbourhood of 18 nonsense characters long,” which is impractical...” for students with reading difficulties
Professional Assessments
Quality Excerpt from the Right to Read Inquiry Report Is it in place?
Professional assessments can happen as early as grade 1 or 2
Universal early screening will flag students who need evidence-based structured literacy interventions (explicit and systematic programs that target phonemic awareness, decoding and accurate and quick word reading). If a student is not responding appropriately to such interventions, a professional assessment referral may be appropriate. This can happen as early as Grade 2,or following intense intervention in Grade 1. In the meantime, schools should provide more intensive interventions.
Professional assessments are done AFTER intense intervention is tried if student is not responding
If a student is not responding appropriately to such interventions, a professional assessment referral may be appropriate. This can happen as early as Grade 2,or following intense intervention in Grade 1. In the meantime, schools should provide more intensive interventions.
Assessment is not needed to get access to reading intervention
Professional assessments should not be a pre-condition for a student to receive intervention, accommodation or other special education supports. Yet, the inquiry found that they are often required, even if official board policies do not say so
Use the term “dyslexia”
The Ministry should amend PPM 8 to encourage identifying the subtypes of learning disability/academic areas that are impaired, and explicitly recognizing the term “dyslexia” for learning disabilities that affect word reading and spelling.
Clear, transparent referral process documents
School boards should create clear, transparent, written criteria and formalize their processes for referring students with suspected reading disabilities for psychoeducational assessment based on the young student’s response to intervention (RTI)
Tracking by learning disability/academic area that is impaired
School boards should track students by the learning disability/academic area that is impaired, and should explicitly recognize the term dyslexia for learning disabilities that affect word reading and spelling.
Manage Wait List and establish reasonable timelines
Assessments are completed in an equitable and timely manner:
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Establish reasonable timelines for completing psychological and speech language assessments
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Maintain centralized, electronic wait lists at the board level
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Use the centralized, electronic wait lists to monitor and manage wait times, and where necessary, reassign assessments to specialists who have smaller workloads
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Implement a plan to clear backlogs.
Ineffective Professional Assessment Practices
Remove these if they are in your system.
Late Assessment
For example, there is a common, but incorrect, belief that a student must be in at least Grade 3 before they should be considered for a psychoeducational assessment for a reading disability
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Long Wait List
Long waits for students to be assessed or served by psychology and speech-language professionals
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A failure to implement systems for centralizing and managing wait times, which prevents boards from prioritizing students for assessment
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Economic Disparity
When students with reading challenges are recommended to seek private assessments as the wait list is indefinite, this leads to economic disparity.
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Since private assessment can cost several thousand dollars, many families cannot afford them.
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Works Cited
Government of Ontario. (2022, February). Right to read inquiry report. Right to Read inquiry report | Ontario Human Rights Commission. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/right-to-read-inquiry-report