A common refrain from Windward families is how fortunate they feel to have found the School. Our community understands, through lived experience, just how critical early identification and intervention can be. When The Windward Institute (WI) was formed in 2020, it was charged with sharing the expertise of the School within the broader community in a variety of formats. These have included webinars for educators and families, free community lectures, courses for educators, the READ Podcast, and more. Now, the Institute is further expanding its reach by offering free reading screenings for students in grades K-3 to Windward’s surrounding communities. Previously, reading screenings had been offered periodically through the School’s enrollment office; providing this service through the WI bolsters its commitment to outreach initiatives in fulfilling its mission to advance literacy outcomes for all.
WHY SCREENING MATTERS
The Windward Institute believes that literacy is a fundamental right for all children. Despite encouraging shifts at the local and national level to embrace evidence-based instruction, the fact remains that elements of the current educational system—specifically, identifying and providing interventions for children with learning disabilities—still promotes a “wait to fail” model. The untenable effect of this approach is that many children are not identified as having reading difficulty until late elementary or middle school. And while these students wait for the intervention they need, there are measurable consequences to not only their academic progress but also their mental health.
Study after study has shown that screening children early for reading difficulties can help address issues that lead to reading failure, not to mention improve literacy outcomes more broadly. Although many schools and districts have begun to implement universal screening, there continues to be a need, particularly in under-resourced neighborhoods, for comprehensive screening, information, and advocacy for families. Given current statistics on learning disabilities, screening and identification practices are especially relevant:
- 1 in 5 children has a learning disability (NCLD).
- About 80% of children with learning disabilities experience language and reading deficits (American Psychological Association, 2013).
- 1 in 14 children are diagnosed with a developmental language disorder (DLD and Me, n.d.).
- As many as 15-20% of children have word reading difficulties (International Dyslexia Association).
- Research shows a 50% co-morbidity between dyslexia and developmental language disorder (Snowling et al., 2019; Hogan, 2022).
SCREENING INITIATIVE AT WINDWARD
Thanks to an incredibly generous gift from a Windward alumni family, the WI received funding through the establishment of the Early Literacy Endowment to support a new reading screenings program in perpetuity. In April, The Windward Institute ran a reading screening pilot, with the goal of hosting two to three screening events in the 2024-2025 school year. Each participating child engaged in a thirty-minute screening of early word reading skills (for example, real word and nonsense word reading, oral reading fluency) and language skills (such as comprehension and vocabulary). For each screening facilitated by the Institute, the measures administered by trained staff are research validated and identify risks for word reading and developmental language deficits. Program facilitators score and evaluate screenings onsite and discuss results directly with families.
Another feature of this initiative is a curated resources kit for participants, which includes free information tailored to the student’s results. This kit, combined with discussion of the student’s results, empowers families to understand their child’s literacy development and obtain resources they can use to build skills and advocate for their child in school. Long term, the WI aims to provide inperson screenings in designated communities throughout the tri-state area. If a demand for virtual screenings arises, these may be offered at some point as well.
This initiative is an exciting step forward for the WI, expanding its reach to impact not only students within Windward’s walls but also within the greater learning disability population. “Windward’s highly effective programs and decades of experience in the remediation of language-based learning disabilities have helped thousands of students become proficient readers and writers,” said Alexis Pochna, director of The Windward Institute. “The Institute is excited to share this knowledge through our free screening program to help more students achieve reading success.”