Screen Early for Risk of Dyslexia 
​Stop Learning Differences from Becoming Disabilities

Speak Up T-Shirts!

Help us with our fund-drive by buying a t-shirt. MORE COLORS AVAILABLE!
​Your donation will go towards strengthening our Speak Up campaign, and supporting more parents to talk to their public school boards of education.

Take Action: 

Speak Up for Literacy New York! 

Send in your Speak Up video & get a FREE T-SHIRT 

Join us and talk to your public-school representatives; the Board of Education (BOE), Panel for Education Policy (PEP), and Community Education Council (CEC). Please share the link to our campaign on social media & email. Share videos on YouTube of your testimonies – let’s do this!   

Data is from the New York Education Department and The Education Consumers Foundation
Data includes: number of students predicted to dropout, number of students reading below grade level and what your district's failure to teach reading costs taxpayers.

→3-minute script to read out at your district's education meeting with reading levels for your district
→Brochure to hand out with all the reading level data 
→The economic impact to taxpayers of your district's failure to teach reading
→Number of predicted dropouts for your school district
→The number of unprepared graduates at your school district
→Number of students reading below grade level (below proficient) in your school district
→Reading by district; compares all districts by county
→Grade progression for individual school districts - how well does your district support literacy skills?
​→Advocate T-shirt $30​ (optional/fundraiser)

​How well are New York's children taught to read?

Take a look at Albany county; this is data from NYSED for general education students.

​*We use data for 3rd grade reading proficiency as it is the single most important indicator for academic success. If a child is not reading to grade level by that point, they are educationally disadvantaged for a lifetime. Without remediation they are unlikely to fully benefit from their education or reach their potential.

​↓Take a look at Albany City SD; this shows data for 4 cohorts and their progress over 4 years. The data used to make this graph is from NYSED.

​Check out students with disabilities (85% classified as disabled have dyslexia). Look at their ability to read-they have made NO PROGRESS IN 4 YEARS.

SHAME ON YOU NYSED: 95% of ALL students have the capacity to read to grade level when the instruction is explicit, systematic and cumulative (science-based structured literacy).

What are the hidden facts in New York Education Departments' data website?

​According to pre-COVID 2019 NYSED third to eighth-grade students' data, 51% of native English-speaking students and 55% of all students read below grade level (i.e., below the "proficient" level). Appallingly, 65% of African American/Black students, 84% of children in foster care, and 88% of students with disabilities cannot read to a proficient level or are functionally illiterate.
 
That said, 95% of ALL students have the potential to become skilled readers and read at or above grade level if they receive effective Pre-K to 3nd-grade instruction--i.e., instruction containing phonological awareness, phonemes, phonics, and building fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. 

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Take a look and find out how many children are taught how to read at your school district...

We have the data & charts for ALL SCHOOLS in New York State:

DONATE: ADVOCATE FOR DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN
​EMPOWER A LIFE

Don Meichenbaum, one of the world's leading experts on childhood trauma, states:

                                    "….one thing is more important to traumatized children than anything else. More important than therapy, more important than social programs, more important than anything else. The research shows that the single most powerful predictor of their ability to overcome the trauma and survive their circumstances is the ability to read. If they can read, they have a chance to find success in school and overcome all those terrible things in their lives. If they can't, school will only be another source of pain and failure added to all the other sources of pain and failure.  If they can read, they can benefit from therapy and everything else we may try to do for them. If they can't read, all of that is a waste of time".

OUR PROGRAMS & WHAT WE DO

ADVOCACY

Our team of advocates and special education teachers work with underprivileged children with dyslexia who struggle with literacy, are not making progress, and not receiving legally entitled services to remediate their learning disability.

​Our special education teachers create education plans to ensure that students receive evidence-based instruction that meets their needs. Additionally, we monitor and chart students' progress to ensure that they stay on track, make meaningful progress, and are fully prepared for college and the workforce.


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ADVOCACY → REFORM

Untreated dyslexia is a symptom of a more extensive misunderstanding about how to teach reading. Therefore, during our advocacy process, we implement a plan that will improve literacy skills for all students.

Furthermore, we are not a teacher training organization. Instead, we identify high-quality, evidence-based professional development and develop a curriculum to ensure implementation at the school. Additionally, we bring in experts to train special education and classroom teachers in more rural areas. Finally, our curriculum ensures that students with dyslexia never fall behind and general education students reach their full potential.