Equity is the latest buzzword in education. These conversations revolve around closing the achievement gap, racial equity, and utilizing technology to level the playing field. Yet, there is a deeper and historical equity problem facing education that is rooted in the ability and opportunity for all students to read. It’s been said by Dr. Sally Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity that 1 in 5 people worldwide have dyslexia. Dyslexia affects 20 percent of the population and represents 80–90 percent of all those with learning disabilities. Unfortunately, this topic is largely ignored in schools across the United States.
Dyslexia is not a new problem. Students have been struggling with dyslexia for hundreds of years. What is different,is the evolution and pronunciation of the struggle alongside the Information Age. For example, we often take for granted that learning to read is like learning to speak, meaning, we practice the skill and then we become fluent readers. This is not the reality for dyslexic students. They must first learn how to solve the puzzle of reading to access everyday knowledge that we take for granted, like reading to answer questions on a standardized test, working on written assignments using an electronic tablet, or applying for a job.
Not surprising, we have a clear, explicit recipe to teach a dyslexic student to read. It is not a new technique, but a systematic, explicit method of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness that helps students organize learning to read into manageable blocks of information.