On October 24, 2022, Acting Secretary of Education Eric Hagarty joined the annual DyslexiaAwareness Gathering at the state Capitol Building to advocate for the one in five Pennsylvanians with dyslexia. During the event, leaders from state organizations, elected officials, parents, and advocates educated attendees about learners with dyslexia and their needs.

“We know that, as with any learning differences, early assessment and intervention provide the best outcomes for learners with dyslexia,” said Acting Secretary Hagarty. “It is critical that we provide schools and educators with the resources they need to meet students where they are and offer tailored instruction to ensure they can continue to learn, grow, and thrive.”

The Mayo Clinic describes dyslexia as “a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.”

Nationwide, about 85% of special education students with a learning disability have a primary learning disability in reading and language processing. As many as 15–20% of our population as a whole have some of the symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up similar words. 

Continuing its commitment to high-quality education for all learners, PDE recently announced that it has developed new educator competencies to support literacy. These competencies identify the knowledge and skills educators should have to teach reading based on current research, and they will enable current and aspiring educators to teach reading to students effectively.

Literacy instruction focuses on decoding—the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words. This helps learners recognize familiar words quickly and figure out new words. Structured literacy instruction ensures that all students have access to effective reading instruction. 

The PA Department of Education (PDE) will provide structured literacy supports and professional development to educators who hold instructional certificates in early childhood education, elementary-middle level, PK-12 Special Education, English as a Second Language, and Reading Specialist. Structured literacy focuses on the five essential components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension). 

For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Education, please visit the website.