Education Week - February 24, 2021 - 7

have often not developed those skills,
said Joanne Pierson, project manager
for Dyslexia Help at the University
of Michigan. The website serves as a
resource for people with dyslexia and
their parents and employers. Pierson,
a speech and language pathologist by
training, also runs a private clinical
practice that specializes in helping
students with dyslexia.
" Keeping those children engaged,
when you can't do something subtle
like walk around the classroom and
stand next to them or gently put your
hand on their shoulder or notice when
they're looking lost, has to be tough, "
Pierson said. " All those subtle things
that teachers do to keep kids on track.
Those are big challenges, particularly
if you don't have a parent sitting there
with the child because many parents
are working. I work with kids one-onone. So I can say things like, 'Are you
with me?' or 'I'm on page whatever
in the middle of the paragraph' and
show it to them. That's a whole different ballgame when you have 25 or 30
students. "
Schools must also remember that
a year into the pandemic, some students still struggle to understand how
to use technology.

3. Rethink how and what
you teach

Teachers cannot take what worked
in the traditional classroom and try
to transfer it to an online setting.
When they make changes, they must
consider the needs of students with
language-based learning disabilities,
especially disabilities that can make
some tasks more difficult.
" As we've gone online, a lot of
teachers have thought, 'Oh, if we can't
be in person having class discussions,
I guess more reading and writing is
called for, " Pons said. " We need to
evaluate putting more demands in
the reading and writing area without
understanding the needs of students
with dyslexia. We need to be patient
and understanding, reach out to students who seem to be disengaging
and ask questions like 'What is this
workload like for you?' "
Students will also need help maintaining their focus as the pandemic
stretches on. While students will
benefit from in-person instruction,
expecting them, dyslexic or not, to sit
through six or seven hours of screen
time is not the solution, said Goorevitch of the Norwalk schools.

" The challenge for the kids and for
the staff has been, how do you inhibit
the intrusion into the instructional
day? If the kid is remote, you know
the distractions that can happen at
home, " Goorevitch said.
" There's an intrusion into the natural flow (of the school day) that teachers need to plan for and overcome, "
she added. " Students need real help
in sustaining their efforts and developing the stamina to do the really hard
work of learning to read, particularly
when you have a learning disability
or you're dyslexic. The kids need that
support as well as the direct explicit
instruction. "
4. Take advantage
of remote options

A school district that has five dyslexia specialists each with dozens
of students to support may be able
to use online learning to its advantage, even after the pandemic.
" If you can do things online, the

breadth of resources is no longer
limited by geography, " Clark said.
" As long as you have an adult in the
physical room, they don't have to
be the one delivering the instruction. "
The Norwalk school system operates a literacy center that focuses
on early identification, assessment,
and intervention for students with
dyslexia. During the pandemic, the
district has found new ways to connect students and staff.
" We've been able to pull to gether kids with similar needs from
across the district and put them
together in small remote groups
and have our literacy and dyslexia
specialists work with them very intensely, " Goorevitch said. " Rather
than sending these specialists out
to all our schools or pulling kids
in from a variety of schools and
(having them miss) instructional
time, we have been able to come up
with a good remote option to help
them. "

5. Embrace assistive technology

With students with dyslexia spending more time in front of screens,
whether at home or during in-person
learning, schools should use tools,
such as speech-to-text and text-tospeech functions, that can help them
navigate lessons and complete assignments.
" I do think people are not so afraid
of technology anymore. It levels the
playing field for these students, "
Pierson said. " If these kids aren't
reading the same text as their peers,
they're not getting that vocabulary. "
Clark, the chairman of the International Dyslexia Association Board
of Directors, is dyslexic. Both of his
children also have dyslexia.
" It's just the idea of presenting
multiple ways of gaining meaning, "
Clark said. " So I could read an article, but I could also watch a YouTube
video. That removes barriers to the
knowledge so that more people can
access it. "

$300 less per student on capital projects like HVAC upkeep and
replacement than did low-poverty districts, $719 per student versus
$1,016 per student.
BASIC MAINTENANCE OF VENTILATION SYSTEMS IS ESSENTIAL

But Kanecia Zimmerman, an associate professor of pediatrics at Duke
University Medical Center and co-head of a National Institutes of Health
project studying safe school reopening, argues basic maintenance can go
a long way.
" What is most helpful is that ventilation systems work as they were
designed, " said Zimmerman in a briefing. " Overhauling ventilation
systems, HEPA filters, those types of things have not been demonstrated
to result in reduced transmission. Certainly, we think they could
potentially work based on the fact that they are filtering air and things
of that nature, but there is no evidence that reduced transmission has
occurred because we had these things in place. So, the most important
thing would be to have ventilation systems that actually work. "
A new study of COVID-19 transmission rates in New York City schools
as they started to reopen found transmission rates rose as the heating
season kicked in, and in higher-income neighborhoods with newer
buildings, but were lower in the little more than a third of schools that
had mechanical ventilation, such as fans or central heating and air
conditioning systems.
But, the study also pointed to an upside to older buildings:
" Surprisingly, " the researchers noted, " schools located in older
buildings and lower-income neighborhoods had lower transmission
probabilities, likely due to the greater outdoor airflow associated with
older, nonrenovated buildings that allow air to leak in (in other words,
drafty buildings). "
" We know that even in settings of poor ventilation, masking and
distancing can be very helpful, " Zimmerman said. " Ventilation is
potentially one part " of school mitigation strategies.
Improving indoor air quality may do more than just help schools
tamp down on COVID-19 outbreaks, though. One study last
year found improving air quality also boosted reading and math
achievement, particularly for disadvantaged students living in areas
with outdoor pollution.

Recruiting & Retaining a More
Diverse Teaching Workforce
Register for our free upcoming
webinar, Recruiting and Retaining
a More Diverse Teaching
Workforce. Attendees will:
* Discover exclusive data on
how educators and K-12 HR
professionals feel about workforce
diversity, and why it matters.
* Learn from our panelists-a
classroom teacher, a principal,
and a recruiter-as they share
personal experiences and
professional strategies related to
diversity in the K-12 workplace.
* Ask questions directly to our
panelists.

GUESTS
ٚLEONA FOWLER, Instructional
Support Teacher, New York
City Public Schools
ٚBERNADETTE GERACE, Director of
Recruitment & Retention, Prosper
Independent School District (TX)
ٚDAMAN HARRIS, Principal, Wheaton
Woods Elementary, Montgomery
County Public Schools
MODERATOR
ٚELIZABETH HEUBECK,
independent journalist and
communications consultant

Content provided by

Thursday, February 25, 2021
2 PM ET
edw.link/BrandingMatters

EDUCATION WEEK | February 24, 2021 | www.edweek.org | 7

http://edw.link/BrandingMatters http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - February 24, 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - February 24, 2021