On February 28, 2022 the OHRC released its report on the Right to Read public inquiry and found that Ontario’s public education system is not meeting the needs of students with reading disabilities by not using evidence-based approaches when teaching students how to read.

The Right to Read inquiry report outlines 157 recommendations to the Ministry of Education, school boards and faculties of education on how to address systemic issues that affect the right to learn to read. These recommendations fall under six overall priority areas: curriculum and instruction, early screening, reading interventions, accommodations, professional assessments and systemic issues.

Highlights of the OHRC recommendations include:

• Revising the expectations of the Ontario Kindergarten Program, 2016 and the Ontario Grades 1 to 8 Language curriculum 2006 to include evidence-based approaches to teaching students to read
• Providing professional development for Ontario educators and Ontario pre-service teachers around evidence-based approaches to teaching students to read ie. Structured Literacy, Science of Reading
• Using evidence-based, standardized early screening tools to screen every Kindergarten to Grade 2 student twice a year to identify reading difficulties
• Providing stable funding to support evidence-based reading intervention programs that are accessible to all students
• Providing and supporting timely and effective accommodations, including greater access to assistive technology
• Ensuring greater access to professional assessments
• Mandating regular board data collection, analysis and reporting

BGCDSB welcomes the OHRC’s Right to Read report and we will commit to putting its recommendations into practice. To date, our work around supporting students to learn to read includes:

• Implementation of BGCDSB Essential Literacy Practices that focus on the consolidation of students’ early reading skills.
• Professional Development
  • System Wide PD and Voluntary PD
    • Introduction to the Science of Reading and a Structured Literacy Approach K-12
    • Phonological Awareness
    • Orthographic Mapping
    • Phonics Instruction
  • Principals, Instructional Coaches, SERTs, K-3 NTIP educators
    • Phonological Awareness using multimodal instructional strategies for explicit instruction
    • Science of Reading and a Structured Literacy Approach
    • Structured Literacy Course for Consultant and coaches
• Creation of a BGCDSB Reading Continuum Website that includes scope and sequences, teaching materials, resources and professional learning around essential reading skills.
• Beginning implementation of evidence-based assessments and interventions including early literacy screener.
• Phonological Awareness Resources & Decodable Books were purchased for schools.
• Evidence Based Interventions of Reading Mastery, Corrective Reading implemented in all schools.
• Implementation of Empower Reading Program (developed by Sick Kids Hospital) in 3 schools in 2021-22 and plans for implementation in additional schools in 2022-2023 school year.
• Completion of our 1:1 computer device implementation for all students to ensure access to assistive technology and training.

We will continue our great work around early literacy, implementing key recommendations outlined in this report, so that we can meet the needs of all of our BGCDSB students when it comes to learning to read.

source: medeia release