Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)

With generous funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the Center is undertaking a study with three elementary schools in Los Angeles. In this study, we are demonstrating that the earlier we can provide literacy assessment and the more we can target intervention to students’ specific needs, the more likely we are to help children reach their potential. More specifically, we are screening students in kindergarten and first grade and providing interventions to students who may be at-risk of dyslexia. Please contact Laura Rhinehart (laura.rhinehart@ucla.edu) or Rebecca Gotlieb (rgotlieb@ucla.edu) if you have any questions about this study.

Project Mission and Goals:

The model to be implemented

  • Determine the ability of a new, digital screener to identify students with, or at-risk of, dyslexia.
  • Determine the overall effectiveness of different systematic intervention programs for particular profiles of students identified at-risk of dyslexia.
  • Improve the training of teachers in multiple, evidence-based reading interventions.
  • Increase the frequency and efficacy of elementary school personnel to understand and implement assessment results and to communicate results to parents.

School and Student Characteristics 

The project is being conducted in three elementary schools in Los Angeles. In the first year, the model was implemented in a school of choice, The UCLA Lab School. The following year, a public charter school and a Title 1 Public School, both within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), began implementing our model. Across the schools, students are linguistically, socioeconomically, and racially diverse.

Products, resources, materials to be produced and added to this website, their intended uses, and their intended uses


Professional development materials for teachers

  • Intended Uses: To train and support teachers in interpreting literacy assessment results, modifying instruction accordingly, and explaining results to parents and, when appropriate, children..
  • Intended Users: School administrators, teacher coachers, elementary school teachers

Surveys to capture teachers’ background and training 

  • Intended Uses: To measure teachers’ attitudes and their training around students with dyslexia.
  • Intended Users: Elementary school teachers