Rule 505-3-.112 - Dyslexia Endorsement(1)Purpose. This rule states field-specific content standards for approving endorsement programs that prepare individuals to recognize the characteristics of dyslexia and support students with dyslexia in the field and at the grade levels of their base certification and supplements requirements in GaPSC Rule 505-3-.01 REQUIREMENTS AND STANDARDS FOR APPROVING EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROVIDERS AND EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROGRAMS.(2)Definitions.(a)Articulatory: Motor movements that are involved in the production of speech sounds.(b)Curriculum-Based Measures (CBMs): A set of individually administered, standardized procedures designed to assess basic skills in reading, mathematics, writing, and spelling.(c)Dyslexia: A specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.(d)Expressive Language: Ability to speak and understand language. It encompasses verbal and nonverbal communication skills and how an individual uses language. Expressive language skills include facial expressions, gestures, intentionality, vocabulary, semantics (word/sentence meaning), morphology, and syntax (grammar rules).(e)Morphology: The study of how the aspects of language structure are related to the ways words are formed from prefixes, roots, and suffixes, and how words are related to each other to understand meanings of words and word combination.(f)Multisensory and Multimodal Language-learning Techniques: Use of two or more sensory pathways (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile).(g)Orthographic: The ability to perceive and manipulate aspects of a writing system and the visual aspects of reading and spelling, such as letter, letter patterns, and words.(h)Phonics: The understanding and use of the alphabetic principle, that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds in spoken language) and graphemes (the letters that represent those sounds) in written language and that this information is used to decode and spell words.(i)Phonemic Awareness: The most complex of phonological awareness skills. It is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual phonemes (sounds) in spoken words. The ability to recognize that a spoken word consists of a sequence of individual sounds and the ability to manipulate individual sounds.(j)Phonological Awareness: Encompasses a broad spectrum of processes that comprise a range of understandings related to large chunks of speech (e.g., words within sentences, syllables within words), as well as phonemes (sounds) within words.(k)Phonological Sensitivity: Phonemic and phonological awareness difficulties.(l)Receptive Language: Ability to understand words and language. Involves attention, listening, and processing the message to gain information. Areas of receptive language skills include attention, receptive vocabulary, following directions, and understanding questions.(m)Semantic: Ability to understand meanings of words and word combination.(n)Syntactic: Ability to arrange words in sentences.(3)In-Field Statement. Completers of the Dyslexia Endorsement have strengthened and enhanced competency for recognizing the characteristics of dyslexia and for supporting students with dyslexia in the field(s) and at the grade levels of their base certificate(s).(4)Requirements.(a) A GaPSC-approved professional educator preparation provider may seek state approval to offer this field as either a stand-alone endorsement program or as an endorsement program embedded in a GaPSC-approved initial preparation program or an advanced (degree-only) preparation program. In addition to meeting all applicable approval requirements and standards, embedded endorsement programs must meet requirements specified in paragraph (e) 3. (ix) of GaPSC Rule 505-3-.01 REQUIREMENTS AND STANDARDS FOR APPROVING EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROVIDERS AND EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROGRAMS.(b) To receive approval, a GaPSC-approved educator preparation provider shall offer a preparation program described in program planning forms, catalogs, and syllabi addressing the following standards for the preparation of teachers adapted from the International Dyslexia Association (2018). 1.Foundations of Literacy Acquisition. Programs shall prepare candidates who are able to: (i) Understand the five (5) language processing requirements of proficient reading and writing: phonological, orthographic, semantic, syntactic, and discourse;(ii) Understand that learning to read, for most people, requires explicit instruction;(iii) Understand the reciprocal relationships among phonemic awareness, decoding, word recognition, spelling, and vocabulary knowledge;(iv) Identify and explain aspects of cognition and behavior that affect reading and writing development;(v) Identify (and explain how) environmental, cultural, and social factors contribute to literacy development;(vi) Explain major research findings regarding the contribution of linguistic and cognitive factors to the prediction of literacy outcomes;(vii) Understand the most common intrinsic differences between good and poor readers (i.e., linguistic, cognitive, and neurobiological);(viii) Know phases in the typical developmental progression of oral language, phonemic awareness, decoding skills, printed word recognition, spelling, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and written expression; and(ix) Understand the changing relations among the major components of literacy development in accounting for reading achievement.2.Knowledge of Varied Reading Profiles, Including Dyslexia. Programs shall prepare candidates who are able to: (i) Recognize the tenets of the (2003) International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia, or any accepted revisions thereof;(ii) Know fundamental provisions of federal and state laws that pertain to learning disabilities, including dyslexia and other reading and language disability subtypes;(iii) Identify the distinguishing characteristics of dyslexia and other language difficulties including expressive and receptive language;(iv) Understand how reading disabilities vary in presentation and degree; and(v) Understand how and why symptoms of reading difficulty are likely to change over time in response to development and instruction.3.Assessments. Programs shall prepare candidates who are able to: (i) Understand the differences among and purposes for screening, progress monitoring, and diagnostic and outcome assessments;(ii) Understand basic principles of test construction and formats (e.g., reliability, validity, criterion, normed);(iii) Interpret basic statistics commonly utilized in formal and informal assessments;(iv) Know and utilize in practice well-validated screen tests designed to identify students at risk for reading difficulties;(v) Understand and apply the principles of progress monitoring and reporting with Curriculum-Based Measures (CBMs) including graphing techniques;(vi) Know and utilize in practice informal diagnostic surveys of phonological and phonemic awareness, decoding skills, oral reading fluency, comprehension, spelling and writing;(vii) Know how to read and interpret the most common diagnostic tests used by psychologists, speech-language pathologists, and education evaluators;(viii) Integrate, summarize, and communicate (orally and in writing) the meanings of educational assessment data for sharing; and(ix) Understand the developmental aspects of reading abilities and how they impact the purpose of assessment, the areas of literacy that should be focused upon, and the interpretation of assessment results.4.Structured Literacy Instruction. Programs shall prepare candidates who demonstrate an understanding of: (i) The essential principles and practices of structured literacy instruction, as indicated by the following: (I) Understand and apply in practice the general principles and practices of structured language and literacy teaching, including explicit, systematic, cumulative, and teacher-directed;(II) Understand and apply in practice the rationales for multisensory and multimodal language-learning techniques; and(III) Understand the rationale for and adapt instruction to accommodate individual differences in cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and behavioral aspects of learning.(ii) Phonological and phonemic awareness, as indicated by the following:(I) Understand the rationale for and identify, pronounce, classify, and compare all the consonant phonemes and all vowel phonemes of English;(II) Understand and apply in practice considerations for levels of phonological sensitivity;(III) Understand and apply in practice considerations for phonemic awareness difficulties;(IV) Know and apply in practice consideration for the progression of phonemic awareness skill development, across age and grade;(V) Know and apply in practice considerations for the general and specific goals of phonemic awareness instruction;(VI) Know and apply in practice considerations for the principles of phonemic awareness instruction: brief, multisensory, conceptual, articulatory and auditory verbal; and(VII) Know and apply in practice considerations for the utility of print and online resources for obtaining information about languages other than English.(iii) Phonics and word recognition, as indicated by the following:(I) Know and apply in practice considerations for the structure of English orthography and the patterns and rules that inform the teaching of single-and multisyllabic regular word reading;(II) Know and apply in practice considerations for systematically, cumulatively, and explicitly teaching basic decoding and spelling skills;(III) Know and apply in practice considerations for organizing word recognition and spelling lessons by following a structured phonics lesson plan;(IV) Know and apply in practice considerations for using multisensory routines to enhance student engagement and memory;(V) Know and apply in practice considerations for adapting instruction for students with weaknesses in working memory, attention, executive function, or processing speed;(VI) Know and apply in practice considerations for teaching irregular words in small increments using special techniques;(VII) Know and apply in practice considerations for systematically teaching the decoding of multisyllabic words; and(VIII) Know and apply in practice considerations for the different types and purposes of texts.(iv) Automatic, fluent reading of text as indicated by the following: (I) Know and apply in practice considerations for the role of fluent word-level skills in automatic word reading, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and motivation to read;(II) Know and apply in practice considerations for varied techniques and methods for building reading fluency;(III) Know and apply in practice considerations for text reading fluency as an achievement of normal reading development that can be advanced through informed instruction and progress-monitoring practices; and(IV) Know and apply in practice considerations for appropriate uses of assistive technology for students with serious limitations in reading fluency.(v) Vocabulary, as indicated by the following:(I) Know and apply in practice considerations for the role of vocabulary development and vocabulary knowledge in oral and written language comprehension;(II) Know and apply in practice considerations for the sources of wide differences in students' vocabularies;(III) Know and apply in practice considerations for the role and characteristics of indirect (contextual) methods of vocabulary instruction; and(IV) Know and apply in practice considerations for the role and characteristics of direct, explicit methods of vocabulary instruction.(vi) Listening and reading comprehension, as indicated by the following:(I) Know and apply in practice considerations for factors that contribute to deep comprehension;(II) Know and apply in practice considerations for instructional routines appropriate for each major genre: informational text, narrative text, and argumentation;(III) Know and apply in practice considerations for the role of sentence comprehension in listening and reading comprehension;(IV) Know and apply in practice considerations for the use of explicit comprehension strategy instruction, as supported by research; and(V) Know and apply in practice considerations for the teacher's role as an active mediator of text-comprehension processes.(vii) Written expression, as indicated by the following:(I) Understand the major skill domains that contribute to written expression;(II) Know and apply in practice considerations for research-based principles for teaching letter formation, both manuscript and cursive;(III) Know and apply in practice considerations for research-based principles for teaching written spelling and punctuation;(IV) Know and apply in practice considerations for the developmental phases of the writing process; and(V) Know and apply in practice considerations for the appropriate uses of assistive technology in written expression.5.Professional Dispositions and Practices. Programs shall prepare candidates who: (i) Establish and maintain collaborative relationships with relevant professionals (e.g., speech-language pathologist, school psychologist, curriculum specialist) providing intervention to individuals with dyslexia;(ii) Strive to do no harm and to act in the best interests of struggling readers and readers with dyslexia and related language based learning disabilities;(iii) Maintain the public trust by providing accurate information about currently accepted and evidence-based best practices in the field;(iv) Avoid misrepresentation of the efficacy of educational or other treatments or the proof for or against those treatments;(v) Respect objectivity by reporting assessment and treatment results accurately, and truthfully;(vi) Support responsive treatment of individuals with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities;(vii) Respect confidentiality of students or clients; and(viii) Respect the intellectual property of others.Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 505-3-.112
O.C.G.A. § 20-2-200.
Original Rule entitled "Dyslexia Endorsement Program" adopted. F. Dec. 13, 2019; eff. Jan. 1, 2020, as specified by the Agency.Amended: F. June 11, 2020; eff. July 1, 2020, as specified by the Agency.Amended: F. June 15, 2021; eff. July 1, 2021, as specified by the Agency.Amended: New title, "Dyslexia Endorsement." F. Aug. 10, 2023; eff. Aug. 15, 2023, as specified by the Agency.