Category: Intervention

CA School District in Breach of Federal Class Action Dyslexia Lawsuit Settlement, Attorneys Say

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In fall of 2021, Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) settled a groundbreaking federal class action dyslexia lawsuit claiming that the district failed to identify students with reading difficulties and provide the necessary support. Now, the district is in alleged breach of the terms of the settlement, according to a February 16th Berkeleyside article. Insiders say staff turnover and lack of urgency on behalf of the district have caused significant delays in making systemic changes required under the terms of the settlement. BUSD has already had to extend the terms of the settlement for an additional year due to implementation delays. Kareem Weaver, who sits on the Oakland chapter of the NAACP, is closely following the settlement and views literacy as a civil rights issue.

The settlement requires BUSD to implement a districtwide literacy improvement plan that includes screening all K-5 students for reading difficulties and implementing evidence-based literacy interventions. It also prohibits the use of Fountas & Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) and Reading Recovery except in “exceptional circumstances.” BUSD must also revamp its Special Education and Section 504 policies and procedures. 

In addition, BUSD must evaluate the effectiveness of its Tier 1 curriculum in improving literacy. BUSD currently uses the controversial Lucy Calkins Units of Study with a phonics curriculum “patch.” 

DDCA reached out to BUSD parent of a child with dyslexia, Lindsay Nofelt, who, along with other concerned parents, has created a website so that BUSD parents and community members can stay informed about the progress of the BUSD Literacy Improvement Plan and what it means for their children. ReadingforBerkeley.org is working to build awareness and create more transparency surrounding BUSD’s progress toward fulfilling the terms of the literacy settlement — taking advantage of this opportunity to address the pervasive problem of how we teach kids to read. Lindsay states “No matter how you slice it, this is the right time to demonstrate that Berkeley prioritizes literacy. As educational partners, deeply and personally invested in the success of our community, we believe the key to academic equity is to promote early and successful reading.”

After a four-year-long legal battle to reach the settlement, DDCA questions how much more money BUSD will invest in attorneys fees before investing in improving literacy for all BUSD kids. DDCA hopes that the district’s new leadership, increased attention from the BUSD Board of Education, better public transparency with respect to progress reporting and implementation, and inclusion of parents in the implementation will result in systemic changes that will lead to BUSD being a model district for improving literacy acquisition that others can follow.

Please encourage family, friends, and colleagues to sign up for our DDCA emails to stay informed on dyslexia-related efforts in California. 

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Learn more about the settlement here:

DDCA blog

2021 Berkeleyside article

Decoding Dyslexia CA Movement Reaches a New Milestone

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California Dyslexia Guidelines and structured literacy to be required learning for teacher candidates in California. 

On October 13, 2022, California took a significant step towards improving literacy for its students when the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) unanimously approved new literacy requirements for teacher candidates. 

What does this mean? 

For the first time in California history, teacher candidates will learn about dyslexia and its characteristics, how to screen for risk of dyslexia and how to teach using a structured literacy approach as defined in the California Dyslexia Guidelines. The new literacy standards emphasize a preventative approach in addressing literacy, including risk of dyslexia, through the use of screening, progress monitoring and early intervention. 

As of right now, teacher candidates are not being taught by their credentialing/preparation programs about the most common learning disability that affects between 15 and 20% of the population. That means sitting in a typical California classroom of 25 students there are between three and five children with, or at risk of, dyslexia who are being instructed by someone without the understanding and tools to actually teach these students how to read. 

As Megan Potente, Co-State Director of Decoding Dyslexia CA and former elementary school teacher said, “the teachers I worked with did not learn about evidence-based instruction or dyslexia in their teacher preparation programs. California’s new requirements represent a huge step forward.” 

Tami Wilson, Project Lead for the California Dyslexia Initiative and Director of Development & Training Curriculum & Instruction at the Sacramento County Office of Education noted that the new requirements will “…address the literacy needs of students with disabilities, including students at risk for and with dyslexia and explicitly call for and define structured literacy instruction and incorporation of the California Dyslexia Guidelines.” 

The new literacy requirements will impact elementary, middle and high school teaching credentials, as well as the special education credential and the newly-adopted PK-3 credential. All teacher credentialing programs must align their coursework and field experiences with the new literacy requirements no later than July 1, 2024. 

Decoding Dyslexia CA has been working for years to influence this milestone. In 2016, DDCA laid the foundation by sponsoring Assembly Bill 1369, which resulted in the California Dyslexia Guidelines. A few years later, DDCA worked closely with Senator Susan Rubio’s staff in drafting Senate Bill 488, which tightens the credentialing standards as stated herein. Subsequently, DDCA provided CTC staff with feedback throughout the ongoing development of the newly-approved literacy requirements. 

DDCA’s Co-State Director, Lori DePole, said “the efforts of all our advocacy paid off. This is a huge step forward for California in better preparing our new teachers. We now must ensure that CTC has the literacy experts needed to both oversee the technical assistance that teacher preparation programs will need to implement these new literacy requirements, as well as enforce that they are being followed and maintained.” 

Todd Collins, organizer of the California Reading Coalition and a Palo Alto school board member concurs that there is still hard work to do and said in the EdSource Special Report from October 27, “we can’t say this is done and move on to something else…” 

Diligently monitoring the implementation and ensuring the integrity of the new requirements will be of the utmost importance in the continued statewide DDCA advocacy efforts. 

For the moment, let’s celebrate this milestone that brings us one step closer to much-needed, long-awaited improved literacy for millions of California’s children in the years to come.