About Celebrate Dyslexia Schools
The mission of Celebrate Dyslexia Schools is to educate and support children and their families by expanding the use of evidence-based dyslexia interventions into historically marginalized communities. Their goal is to create an enriching, emotionally safe, culturally appropriate learning environment for all students, particularly those with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in reading for a person who has the intelligence to be a much better reader, most commonly caused by a difficulty in the phonological processing—the appreciation of the individual sounds of spoken language—which affects their ability to speak, read, and spell.
Dyslexia affects roughly 20 percent of the population. However, only a fraction of those students in our region are currently receiving dyslexia services. For most families, the process of pursuing private evaluations and intervention services is prohibitively expensive, and many families lack the knowledge to navigate traditional school systems to demand the necessary services for their children.
Jasmin Dean, the founder of Celebrate Dyslexia and Celebrate Dyslexia Schools, watched her son struggle in school. He wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until he was nine years old, and she wants to save other families from that struggle. She has built a community with a mission to celebrate, educate, and empower people with dyslexia. By raising community awareness and encouraging advocacy, Celebrate Dyslexia has a positive influence in changing the narrative around dyslexia. Celebrate Dyslexia Schools is one of several programs, including Dyslexia 101 presentations, that fulfill this mission and have a direct impact on educational processes for the next generation.
Celebrate Dyslexia Schools features a unique set of design elements that will meet the social, emotional and academic needs of the 1 in 5. They will offer structured literacy-centered education with a self-driven, strength-based approach. Classroom teachers will receive high quality training.
Students will receive emotional support throughout their school day. The first assumption from CDS staff will be that students want to learn. Through fidelity in implementing the IEP and accommodations, the academic model will ensure that students are able to learn.
Students will also experience enrichment in the community. During the inaugural year, when the school is co-located in The DoSeum, students will have access to museum exhibits as part of their learning.
At Celebrate Dyslexia Schools, the class size is capped at 12 students, this will ensure teachers are able to provide diagnostic instruction and build strong relationships with both students and families. The school will also offer a dual language program which will meet the linguistic needs of students. The school day includes two 30-minute recess blocks and a dyslexia therapy block.
To support these design elements, Celebrate Dyslexia Schools will employ a range of research-based pedagogical approaches, including structured literacy, multi-sensory, explicit classroom instruction, small group, personalized instruction, multiple methods to demonstrate mastery, and social emotional learning grounded in conscious discipline and positive behavior intervention supports that follow research-based practices.
To read more about Celebrate Dyslexia Schools in the news, we recommend that you click on the articles linked at the bottom of this post. Also, we invite you to join the San Antonio Charter Moms discussion group on Facebook and ask questions; the group includes parents and caregivers of dyslexic students who can comment with answers based on their own experiences.