Early Literacy - May 6, 2022

This week Reading Specialists, English Learner Specialists, and School Psychologists participated in a seminar with Dr. Jarice Butterfield regarding the importance of using pre-referral strategies to determine the precise needs of multilingual learners before moving toward assessment for a specific learning disability. She engaged elementary school educators in examples of significant factors that may be both a learning difference and a potential learning disability and ways to gather more information to determine the difference. Our general education specialists coming together for this presentation provide site teams with a shared understanding as they partner with classroom teachers, principals, and parents to support multilingual students effectively.

We look forward to creating increased opportunities for these groups of specialists to participate in District-wide gatherings. We are committed to providing differentiated support for our multilingual students, addressing disproportionality, and increasing high literacy levels for every student in our schools.