Taking steps to solve the early education reading crisis in Kansas.

Isn’t it interesting how there are times when something wonderful and important is happening right in our own community and yet few people know about it?

On this Friday, June 21, at the Advanced Learning Library, Fundamental Learning Center is hosting something wonderful and important—a pop-up conference on Dyslexia.

Why? First, one in five of the total state population is dyslexic.

Second, Kansas is the ONLY state in the nation that does not identify and classify dyslexia as a learning difference.

This means that in USD 259 alone, over 10,000 students aren’t identified as dyslexic and they never get the support they need to learn to read.

The Kansas Legislature appointed a group of professionals from across the state to make recommendations regarding the identification and teaching of students with dyslexia. The report has been given to the Legislature.

The chairs of each of the Kansas Dyslexic Task Force committees will present their findings at the conference.

By attending, you will learn the root of the reading crisis in Kansas and how it can be solved.

The latest national reading scores tell us that 63 percent of Kansas 4th graders do not read at grade level.

That is a staggering statistic.

This group of children may never master reading because the typical 4th grade curriculum has children “read to learn” and does not help children “learn to read.”

The result is children who feel dumb and whose school and life success begin to diminish dramatically.

But, not all of the 63 percent of Kansas’ lagging readers are dyslexic.

Even for those readers who have the more common garden variety reading difficulties, the structured literacy approach, endorsed and taught by the Fundamental Learning Center, used to teach those with dyslexia, will help ALL children learn to read.

For more information, or to register today for the conference. Visit funlearn.org.