Pennsylvania Dyslexia Screening and Early Literacy Intervention Pilot Program

The Pennsylvania Dyslexia Screening and Early Literacy Intervention Pilot Program is designed to identify students at risk for reading difficulties, including dyslexia, and provide appropriate supports to improve future reading outcomes. The program has two levels of support: (1) a classroom program that supplements core instruction for all students with an increased focus on phonemic awareness and multisensory structured language (MSL), and (2) an MSL intervention to provide extra instruction for students identified as needing more support based on early literacy screening in the winter of kindergarten. The classroom program strengthens core instruction by providing classroom teachers with professional development aligned with evidence-based approaches while schools continue using their chosen core literacy program. The MSL intervention is provided to students with a kindergarten winter Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) score of 39 or below, delivered by trained interventionists in groups of no more than three students, with targets of 30 intervention hours by the end of kindergarten and 100 hours by the end of first grade. Districts implement various MSL intervention approaches including Orton-Gillingham, Sonday, Wilson, and others.