One in five are affected by dyslexia.
QUICK FACTS
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AFFECTED
90
REMEDIATION
According to the California Department of Education, 90% of cases of students displaying characteristics of dyslexia can be remediated with early intervention.
25
COST Of INTERVENTION
It costs four times as much to deliver interventions to remediate after the third grade.
Each year, students who have extremely low reading proficiency enter local classrooms. For years, SB Unified has helped these students get back on track with research-based methods in a small-group instructional setting. The District has made these interventions more accessible to struggling readers by training teachers in techniques to more effectively work with emergent multilingual learners and students with learning differences, including those displaying characteristics of dyslexia. With the launch of the Open Books Project, we are committed to cultivating a culture of reading that extends beyond the classroom.
WHAT IS THE OPEN BOOKS PROJECT?
Through the Literacy Project, the Santa Barbara Education Foundation has supported critical literacy programs for students and teachers in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. With your help, we are committed to cultivating a culture of reading that extends beyond the classroom. To celebrate the District’s launch of its first new literacy curriculum since 2015, we have established the Open Books Project. Our goal is simple: raise funds to send 2,500 new books home to every TK-3rd grade student and their family during the 23-24 school year.
SBEF’S LITERACY SUPPORT TIMELINE
Until the third grade, students spend much of their time in the classroom learning how to read. After that point, students are expected to rely on their reading skills to continue learning. Since classroom time is not typically dedicated to learning how to read in later grades, students who are not reading at grade level continue to be at a disadvantage for all subjects throughout their academic careers without intervention.
In 2017, the Santa Barbara Unified School District began a pilot program at Harding Elementary to help students with low reading proficiency get back on track. The program used research-based methods in a small group instructional setting to help students decode written words.
After just a few short months, the Harding reading intervention pilot program yielded impressive results. Every student’s knowledge of phonics rules increased, and mastery of sight words went from the lowest scoring student identifying zero words increased to 20 words, and the highest-scoring student identifying 150 words increased to 550 words. The Literacy Project expanded to include Monroe, McKinley, and Roosevelt elementary schools.
The program has now pivoted and is training SB Unified educators in the Fisher & Frey Professional Development Program, which utilizes methods championed by Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, two experts in literacy instruction. By training more educators in these literacy intervention techniques, SB Unified will provide more students who struggle with reading with essential intervention.
LATEST NEWS
Read about how The Literacy Project is making an impact in our community.
On Thursday, September 28, the Santa Barbara Education Foundation (SBEF) hosted the annual Love of Literacy Luncheon at the Santa Barbara Woman’s Club. The event, attended by over 200 generous…