Professor and researcher George Georgiou at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta on Feb. 4.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail
Superintendent Mike McMann looked at the literacy skills of students in his Alberta school division and knew something was wrong.
As kids moved from one grade to the next, their comprehension rates weren’t climbing nearly as high as they should, the data showed.
He brought in a reading expert and initiated a literacy screening program for students in Grades 1 and up, testing children on the alphabet, letter combinations and sounds, and then supporting those who needed an extra boost. The results proved remarkable: Eight years later, about 86 per cent of Grade 9 students have age-level reading comprehension skills, up from 43 per cent prior to the introduction of literacy screening.
“It’s been a game-changer in terms of tier-one instruction for teachers to use that data to then know exactly what needs to take place for all kids, and then also identify kids that may need intervention outside of that,” said Mr. McMann, who heads the Fort Vermilion School Division. His district extended it to kindergartners three years ago.
Canada tends to do well in comparison with other countries when it comes to student reading skills, but literacy scores have been slipping over the years.
Fort Vermilion was one of the earliest adopters of an approach to early literacy screening that several provinces are now mandating for children. Screening of kindergartners across Alberta and B.C. began last month, while Ontario’s took place in the fall.
The test of letter knowledge and sounds, decoding words and reading texts takes only a few minutes. Literacy experts say it is an essential tool to prevent reading problems and other difficulties some children might face a few years later.
Reading scores for Canadian students dropped 13 points from 2018 to 2022, according to the most recent Program for International Student Assessment.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail
“There was a wait-to-fail model,” said George Georgiou, director of the J.P. Das Centre on Developmental and Learning Disabilities at the University of Alberta, who helped the Fort Vermilion division and has also developed the screening tool used in the province.
He said that teachers often don’t screen children until Grade 3 and then try to correct literacy problems. “But if you wait until Grade 3 the chances you can help the child are minimal,” he said.
Reading scores for Canadian students dropped 13 points from 2018 to 2022, according to the most recent Program for International Student Assessment, an international study that measures 15-year-olds’ abilities in reading, math and science.
The Ontario Human Rights Commissions’ Right to Read report from 2022 noted that 26 per cent of all Ontario students in Grade 3 and 53 per cent of students with special education needs were not meeting the provincial standard in the 2018-2019 school year.
The human rights commissions in Ontario and Saskatchewan recently weighed in on how reading is taught in schools, after complaints from families who had children with dyslexia and other special needs. They found that the approaches to reading, which involved guessing and predicting text, were failing many students, and recommended changes including a literacy screening tool to minimize difficulties over the long term.
In Alberta, kindergartners will be screened once a year, in January. Students in Grades 1 to 3 will be tested in September and January, with additional screening for learners who struggled on the January assessment. Ontario classroom teachers will administer the reading screening tool in senior kindergarten, and Grades 1 and 2.
Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, expressed concern that teachers don’t have the supports to address any interventions that may be needed.
However, with the right screening and supports through one-on-one or small group interventions, 95 per cent of children should be able to read at a grade-appropriate level, Prof. Georgiou said.
Lisa Wotherspoon, assistant superintendent of Good Spirit School division, in Saskatchewan, said the screening represents an important shift in how many educators have previously thought of young children’s literacy.
“We used to kind of have the mindset that we’ll just give them more time, or we’ll give them more exposure,” she said.
Mr. Georgiou has helped launch a program to screen children's reading skills in Alberta and Ontario.Amber Bracken/The Globe and Mail
This past fall, schools in her division began screening children in Grades 1 to 3, and screening students in kindergarten has now begun. There is currently no provincial mandate for early screening in Saskatchewan.
“What is promising and exciting for us is that these screeners are really pinpointing for us where those gaps are for our children in terms of those foundational pieces that they need to become proficient readers,” Ms. Wotherspoon says.
In B.C., early literacy screening began last fall. Students in Grades 1 and up were screened in September, while screening of kindergartners began in January.
Pamela Guilbault, superintendent for the Catholic Independent Schools of Nelson Diocese, in Kelowna, said her schools began literacy screening for students last September with noticeable success. Students identified with reading difficulties get extra help in sessions four times a week for 16 weeks.
“We’ve already seen significant growth in their literacy skills,” Ms. Guilbault says.
The approach shows signs of expanding further across the country. For example, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission is conducting a special project examining the rights of students with reading disabilities, which may also result in early screening being mandated.
Dr. Una Malcolm, chief education officer at Dyslexia Canada, hopes to see the screening adopted across the country.
“We can quickly get a snapshot of them when students are right at the beginning of their school career, and it gives us enough time to be able to do something about it,” she said.
“It is respectful of a child’s dignity to avoid the difficulties and trauma that come when reading is difficult,” she said. “Absolutely this is something we would like to see nationwide in every province and territory.”