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District shifts dyslexia screening to Ready Reading, expands training under Kansas mandate
Summary
Assistant superintendent Holly Putnam Jackson told the board the district will move to Ready Reading for grades 2–12 and continue using DIBELS for K–5 while expanding teacher training aligned to the science of reading.
Dr. Holly Putnam Jackson, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, told the Derby USD 260 school board on Jan. 27 that the district is transitioning its secondary reading screener from Reading Inventory to Ready Reading after the vendor discontinued the former product.
The change follows state guidance under the Kansas dyslexia mandate, Jackson said, and district staff plan to continue DIBELS screening in K–5 while using Ready Reading at middle and high school. Ready Reading is on the state-approved list of dyslexia screeners and provides additional diagnostic detail — fluency, vocabulary, phonics and phonemic-awareness probes — that staff said will help target interventions more directly.
"Screening doesn't diagnose dyslexia. However, it is one of the pieces that we do in order to make sure that we're supporting all of our students who might have some specialized instructional needs," Jackson said.
Jackson described other local changes required by the state mandate: a baseline set of professional modules aligned with the science of reading that new teachers must complete, and an annual update training that districts must report. She also said the district will gather feedback through May on whether DIBELS remains the appropriate K–5 screener and will correlate Ready Reading lexile results with previous Reading Inventory ranges during the transition.
Why it matters
The screening change affects how staff identify students for tiered reading interventions and the diagnostic information teachers receive to match interventions. Jackson said Ready Reading offers more automated diagnostic follow-ups than the previous screener, which may reduce local retesting workload.
Ending
Board members asked clarifying questions about grade-level participation and how high-school testing rates affect results; Jackson and Derby High School leaders said they will continue to encourage participation and explore other assessment options such as ACT-based measures when appropriate.
