October is Dyslexia Awareness Month in Idaho, and over the past 10 years, Idaho professionals have prioritized early literacy and dyslexia education statewide. From updated, data-driven instruction for incoming teachers to intervention tutoring for elementary students, Boise State University has been at the forefront of these literacy initiatives. 

In September, Boise State University awarded its first endowed professorship in education to Clinical Associate Professor Carolyn Cort. Her specialty is early literacy.

At BSU, Cort teaches courses in the early language and literacy endorsement, which is similar to a minor, for education majors and teacher candidates. The classes instruct teacher candidates how to properly test literacy comprehension and screen for dyslexia.

“A few years ago, schools of education, Boise State included, were not well equipped with enough knowledge about dyslexia,” Cort said. “So we’ve really all had to become more knowledgeable and integrate education about dyslexia into all of our courses.”

Cort believes all college students who intend to become teachers need to learn how to properly teach literacy and how to evaluate students who may be having trouble reading. 

“That includes K-12, that includes secondary majors,” Cort said. “High school teachers need to learn about dyslexia and know how to serve those students when they come into their classrooms.”

Through her endowed professorship, Cort can focus more deeply on curating instruction techniques to suit the needs of students with dyslexia and other language-based learning difficulties.

“It’s the first semester of the endowed professorship, so I have a specific list of goals that I’m working on, and it’s really taking shape,” Cort said. “The main thing is that it opens up space for me to focus on these things.”

One of Cort’s main goals is increasing dyslexia expertise statewide through partnerships with local school districts and nonprofits, and by advising statewide initiatives.

Cort serves on the Statewide Dyslexia Task Force, which helps inform legislators on how to assist literacy education in schools and communities. She also works closely with nonprofit Decoding Dyslexia Idaho to help raise awareness and advocate for this vulnerable student population.

Decoding Dyslexia Idaho started in 2018 to give teachers access to quality literacy training, according to Founder Robin Zikmund. 

Zikmund worked with the State Department of Education to pass Idaho’s first Dyslexia Legislation in 2022 that requires schools to screen students for dyslexia and provide professional development for education staff.

Zikmund said one of the best ways to achieve this professional development is to implement dyslexia intervention techniques into teacher candidates’ curricula so they are prepared when they get their first job. 

“This work starts at university level, in my opinion,” Zikmund said. “Holding our universities accountable to make sure that our teachers had what they needed when they walked into our schools, and for so long, that was a missing piece.”

According to Zikmund, this proactive approach to addressing literacy issues in young students can save them from a lifelong struggle. 

“We have this wait-to-fail model in our public school systems,” she said. “We keep prolonging identifying struggling readers, assuming that they’re going to catch up. The science is there to show that they don’t catch up.”

BSU and many other colleges and universities across the state have adopted a curriculum for dyslexia intervention learning since the 2022 legislation. 

“BSU has been an incredible partner in recent years in recognizing that we’re going to be more impactful if we work together,” Zikmund said.

Last Saturday, BSU held Decoding Dyslexia’s annual literacy conference, where experts from across the country spoke on their knowledge and findings. BSU Education majors in Cort’s classes received class credit if they attended. 

One of BSU’s main programs to benefit both grade-school students and teacher candidates is the Boise State Literacy Lab. 

The Boise State Literacy Lab is a literacy tutoring program for K-3rd grade students that started about ten years ago. The tutors are teacher candidates, usually in their final year of school.

Lisa Beymer, Clinical Associate Professor of Early Literacy and Special Education, is a professor in the lab and is training to become the Literacy Lab director in the spring. She said that the lab was first formed to fill in a gap in authentic teaching experience for teacher candidates.

“[The founding professors] saw an opportunity not only to enhance the experiences of our teacher candidates, but also to provide a connection between our university and the community around us — the students who really need that extra support in literacy,” Beymer said. 

For elementary students to qualify for the program, they must exhibit a need for more intensive instruction as noticed by their teachers or parents. The lab works with local school districts so that teachers can recommend children for the program.

The lab is a semesterly program for both parties. There are two tutors for every elementary student, ensuring that students get individualized instruction and attention.

This fall, the program has 26 Boise State student tutors, but Beymer said they expect 60 tutors for the spring, allowing them to expand the number of children they accept into the program. 

“We have two teachers for every one student, both of those teachers working together to use data and assessments to inform their instruction for that specific student,” Beymer said. “We don’t have to look at 30 to 35 learners; we are looking at one specific learner and his or her strengths and needs and preferences, and we’re able to individualize the instruction for exactly where they’re at.”

Student tutors use the skills they learn in their literacy endorsement classes to guide their lesson planning, including administering different tests for literacy and phonological awareness.

“It would be an irony if teacher educators told our students what best practice was, but didn’t show them or didn’t give them an opportunity to practice it themselves. And that’s truly what the literacy lab is,” Beymer said.

Senior education major at Boise State, Savannah Jackson is currently tutoring at the literacy lab. Her endorsement is in literacy.

Right now, Jackson teaches a second-grade student during the hour-long tutoring block. 

“The lesson takes about 30 minutes, and the other 30 minutes, we’re focusing on extension activities,” Jackson said. “So just coming up with data-based activities that we think would help further their learning and kind of work on whatever skill we’re needing them to work on at the time; and then the last five minutes, we just reflect with our students.”

Jackson said the lab is a great hands-on experience to apply what she has learned in her classes. She also emphasized the need for incoming teachers to recognize and address language-based difficulties among students of all ages.

“A lot of students kind of can fly under the radar without knowing how to read,” Jackson said. “So it’s really important that us as incoming teachers know what to look for, so that we’re able to step in and intervene and make sure that every student is getting the education that they need.”