School and district leaders must ensure that dyslexia screening is compliant with state requirements and effective in identifying students at risk. This whitepaper provides a roadmap for doing both.

Authored by experts Matthew K. Burns, Tim Odegard, Rachel-Brown Chidsey, and Tiffany P. Hogan, this paper presents a clear argument for redesigning dyslexia screening so it better reflects current research, child development, and the realities of school implementation.

The paper makes a major contribution to schools’ screening practices by:

• Reframing dyslexia screening within a developmental and risk-prevention model

• Outlining guiding principles for effective screening and data-based decision making

• Highlighting the importance of oral language factors

• Proposing grade-level screening measures from pre-K–6 that are intended to improve both the efficiency and accuracy of dyslexia screening