The Mississippi Department of Education Office of Elementary Education and Reading has updated the state approved dyslexia screener list.
Mississippi Code § 37-173-15 mandates that each local school district must screen students for dyslexia in the spring of kindergarten and the fall of Grade 1 using a State Board of Education approved screener. The screener must contain the following components: Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, Sound Symbol Recognition, Alphabet Knowledge, Decoding skills, Encoding skills, and Rapid Naming. If the student fails the screener, the parent or legal guardian will be notified of the results of the screener.
Proposed screeners were reviewed by a panel with expertise in reading, early childhood, dyslexia therapy, and speech-language pathology. Screeners that met all required components of the law were approved for inclusion on the MS Approved Dyslexia Screeners List.
The following Dyslexia Screeners were approved on March 17, 2022, by the State Board of Education for use during the 2022 – 2023 school year:
- Amplify (mCLASS with DIBELS 8th Edition)
- Curriculum Associates (i-Ready Assessment, i-Ready Early Reading Tasks)
- Illuminate Education (FastBridge)
- Lexercise (MS Dyslexia Screener)
- MS College (Dyslexia Screener)
- MS Dyslexia Therapy Association (Dyslexia Screener in Association with William Carey University)
- Pearson (aimswebPlub Measures)
- Voyager Sopris Learning (Acadience Reading)
A description of the MS Approved Dyslexia Screeners is located on the MDE Dyslexia Website.
Districts are required to complete the First-grade Dyslexia Screener by October 21, 2022, and the Kindergarten Dyslexia Screener by April 14, 2023. In addition, districts are required to submit the District Dyslexia Screening Report to the Office of Student Intervention Services at dyslexiadata@mdek12.org by May 5, 2023.
If you have any questions, contact the Director of Intervention Services, Laurie Weathersby at lweathersby@mdek12.org