Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join Cheri on this Special Edition of The Writing Glitch is PA House Representative Jason Ortitay. He discusses the importance of mandating education for writing skills, as many teachers struggle to teach writing effectively.
PA House Bill 998 and Senate Bill 801:
- The interviewee explains that both bills aim to introduce legislation related to education.
- The bills have the same content but different bill numbers.
- The bills have bipartisan support, with Republican and Democrat co-primes in both the House and Senate.
- The interviewee emphasizes that the bills' primary goal is to improve education, irrespective of political affiliations.
Key Provisions of the Bills:
- Early Screenings:
- Kindergarten through third-grade students will be screened three times a year to track progress.
- The goal is to ensure students are on track with their reading skills and provide support if needed.
- The interviewee emphasizes the importance of proficient reading skills by the end of third grade.
- Individualized Plans:
- If students are falling behind in their reading skills, they will receive individualized improvement or reading plans.
- Teachers, parents, and students will collaborate on these plans to prevent students from falling further behind.
- Cost Savings:
- The interviewee highlights the cost savings associated with early intervention.
- Educating students with special needs costs significantly more, making early screening and intervention financially prudent.
- Teacher Training:
- K-4 teachers, administrators, reading specialists, and special education teachers will receive training in structured literacy.
- The state will provide financial resources to support teacher training.
- Vendor Selection:
- A committee of subject matter experts will select high-quality vendors for structured literacy programs.
- School districts can choose from this list of approved vendors, simplifying the selection process.
- State Reporting:
- The bill requires school districts to report their use of structured literacy programs to the Department of Education.
- The state will track progress and gather data to ensure the effectiveness of the programs.
- Ban on "Three-Cueing":
- The bill prohibits the use of "three-cueing" methods in Pennsylvania.
- This move aims to promote evidence-based approaches and discontinue ineffective practices.
- Writing Instruction:
- The interviewee acknowledges the importance of incorporating structured writing instruction into future bills.
- The focus is on creating explicit, systematic, cumulative, multisensory writing programs.
- The goal is to address the gap in writing education within structured literacy programs.
Conclusion:
- The interviewee discusses the challenges of passing comprehensive legislation and the need for ongoing efforts to improve education.
- Future steps may include recapturing students who were not reached by the initial programs and further enhancing writing instruction.
Creators & Guests
Host
Cheri Dotterer
Cheri is an international speaker, author, and consultant who helps teachers, therapists, and parents build clarity, community, and competency around the barriers to writing success. Her book, Handwriting Brain-Body DisConnect, has remained in the Top 100 on Amazon since publication in Handwriting Reference and Learning Disabilities. It was also a Top 10 Finalist in the Author Academy Awards in 2019. In addition, she was nominated the USA 2022 Dysgraphia Expert of the Year by Global Health and Pharma Magazine. She has worked in many concentration areas as an occupational therapist for 30 years. However, it wasn't until starting her private practice that she found her passion for helping others understand this disability. In addition, she has been an adjunct instructor at several universities. She lives with her husband of 32 years. They have two adult children. Her heroes are Evelyn Yerger, her grandmother, and Esther, Queen of Susa. Together, we can grow 110 million leaders and hack dysgraphia by building skills, applying knowledge, and transcending futures.
What is The Writing Glitch: Hack Dysgraphia No Pencil Required?
The Writing Glitch is brought to you by Dotterer Educational Consulting. Our Founder and Owner, Cheri Dotterer, is the host.
Build courage, compassion, and collaboration to help students thrive and grow leaders that transcend a lifetime, regardless of dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia, using sensory-motor processing and neuroscience-based instructional interventions. No Pencil Required!
We interview teachers, therapists, and parents about how they have seen a transformation in children having these disabilities and co-morbid conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). They share how they help students grow and prosper.
We believe we can grow 110 million leaders together by building skills, applying knowledge, and transcending futures. Join us to hack dysgraphia. No Pencil Required.
Each episode contains one intervention to help you support students with writing challenges the next day you are in your classroom. These interventions are explicit, systematic, cumulative, and multisensory. They are designed to support ALL students through targeted, daily visual-perceptual, visual-motor, and memory interventions. These interventions benefit all students and harm none.
All students have access to writing regardless of their status in the classroom. The interventions were created to take up to 30 seconds to 2 minutes of your classroom time. Strategic lesson planning increases classroom engagement.
All interventions can be adapted for students with physical disabilities because they support the Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and well-being of all students. In addition, these interventions impact all subject matter classrooms. Whether you are teaching English language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, music, or art, these interventions will benefit your classroom atmosphere across ALL grade levels.
You have put your blood, sweat, and tears into investing in your education and children. Don’t let a misunderstanding about this disability stop you from providing best practices.
In case you don’t know me. I’m Cheri Dotterer, 2022 Dysgraphia Expert of the Year. This honor was bestowed on me by Global Health and Pharma Magazine. In 2023, they awarded my company the Best Dysgraphia Professional Development Program.
It took challenges at home and on the job to wake me up to the impact dysgraphia has on all students. Struggling my entire life with communication issues, I was mistaken that only students with learning disabilities could have dysgraphia.
My thoughts shifted when my gifted daughter asked for help with spelling. My son struggles with handwriting. Then, a parent asked me why her child could read and have trouble writing. Finding answers became the drive that gets me out of bed in the morning.
It’s a big shock when you discover how pervasive writing difficulties are and how little people know about how to help–even OTs. I used to think I was the only OT who struggled with understanding dysgraphia. It turns out many have questions.
Occupational, physical, and speech therapists are not trained to teach. Teachers are.
Occupational, speech, and physical therapists are trained in neuroscience. Teachers are not.
Let this podcast be your first line of defense to help your students transcend their learning disabilities. Show your school district how much you genuinely care about all of your students by sharing it with your colleagues.
After each episode, I challenge you to share your key takeaway from the podcast in our FREE yet private community. Share your student wins. Get support on the challenges.
Join The Writing Glitch Community. https://thewritingglitch.com/
Connect with Cheri at www.cheridotterer.com or info@thewritingglitch.com
Cheri Dotterer: Good morning,
everybody, it's cheri Dotterer.
Here, from the writing glitch, I
I am so excited and honored to
have Jason I forgot it again,
fit
Jason Ortitay: for T tie.
Cheri Dotterer: For t tie. I
want to say it phonetically. Ah,
and I've been practicing it. So
it was not working. I want to
Please share a story before we get
started today because this is
In this story, I think,
encompasses the kids that we see
here all over the world, that
are struggling with reading,
writing, and maths. And it's a
story about Ben. Ben was a third
grade student or Yeah, third
grade, and he was expelled from
three schools. I'm like, How can
a kid at that age of eight years?
Nine hundred ten years old, be expelled from
school? Well, he was having.
these behaviors that they
didn't know how to deal with. So
you're sitting in an IEP meeting
in August, with a new school, Mom
was praying that he was going to
be able to get accepted into
that school. And it just
happened that one of my clients.
Her name is Kristen, and she was in that
meeting, she had just completed
my course on dysgraphia, which
is disability and writing, which
is what the writing glitches are all
about. And within 30 days, they
had a new IEP. Then Kristen gets
his call in October, and mom is
crying. And this is where it
hits me. It gets my heart is
because she was telling the
story of how Ben was running
after the bus, before the bus
was, was trying to get to the
bus stop the bus and how to stop
early. And he is so excited to
go to school because he's
learning how to read. He's
learning how to write. And it's
all because of a thing called.
structured literacy. And that's
what we're here to talk about
today. And I have the pleasure
of joining with our representative.
joining me, and I want to read
his bio before we get started in
the interview. Boasting creation
reforming the tax code and
strengthening educational
opportunities and solving local
issues are top priorities for
representatives. I'll never say
it right.
Jason Ortitay: You could just
call me Jason for the purpose.
Cheri Dotterer: That's good. I
can handle Jason as my son's
middle name. It means warrior. I
don't know if you know that is
in it. In the current legislation
session, Jason serves on two.
House committees education and
transportation. God bless you
for doing that. He also has
a representative chairman of
Subcommittee on Highways and
bridges, and transportation
committee and the representative
chair for the subcommittee of
the special education under the
Education Committee. He lives in
Washington County with his wife
and daughter. And he is out.
They are just helping the world of
special education. Go to new
levels here because in the 21st
century, we are in a challenge
to learn more about what is
happening in the science behind
reading, writing, and math. So
Representative Jason, thank you
for being here. And one of the
questions I asked my clients or
my guests before I even get into
the interview is about " How are you
doing really?
Jason Ortitay: Well, thanks for
having me. I've been doing.
great. Quite honestly, I spent
the entire summer hanging out.
and doing fun things with my
daughter. She's two years old.
So we've got to experience many
bounce houses and playhouses
and outdoor playgrounds all
over the place. So I've been
having a blast. It's been
wonderful.
Cheri Dotterer: It's it's so
much fun when they're that age.
And then they hit school and
then, like, this whole world
changes because when they're in
that zero to five range, their
the brain is growing that right
the brain is curious
and everything, and then we hit
kindergarten, and they expect the
left brain to start working. And
the left brain doesn't necessarily.
kick in quite right away, does
it?
Jason Ortitay: Nope. We're
learning a lot here. She's she's
a brilliant girl. She
remembers every single thing.
It's just It's nonstop with her, and I love it. I know I'm going to
miss the nights when she
was because she always says
Daddy holds my hand when we go to
bed, and you know that stuff's
It's not going to last forever.
Cheri Dotterer: No, and don't do
it as long as she will let you
do it because they get to the
the point where they go After
College, and then it's not
there. So pray with her, hold
her hand at night and do
whatever you can right before
bed. So cherish those
moments. So, unlike the crowd
that I often have here on the
podcast, I invited everyone that
I knew, including my 80-year-old
parents because I want
the world to understand what's
happening here. Between way I
was taught in school, okay, I
have a couple of years on you, I
went to school when it was whole
literacy, you know, whole
language. And I remember
struggling. And the more I
learned about structure
literacy, the more I realized
how much I struggled. I know I
struggled with writing because
that's like the manifestation,
sorry, I couldn't get it to keep
sweating because I have this
fruit fly in my face. And so
that there we go, live people,
you're getting to see the
raw. But the more I learn about
the science of reading, the
science of writing and how it
also intersects with math, the
more I realized how much of a
challenge and how much I worked
to get the B's and C's that I
got. So, I never qualified for
special education. Well, back in
those days, it didn't even.
happen. But what is the
difference between this whole
language and structure literacy
to your understanding? Now, I
know that you have not gone
through education? Because you
have a business background, but
what is your understanding of
what is happening out there in
this world?
Jason Ortitay: Well, the main
issue is, if we have literacy
rates, especially across the
Commonwealth EPA that have just
been sinking and sinking for the
last couple of decades. And what
we're doing right now just just
isn't working. I mean, the
the latest round of state scores has
said a 32% proficiency rate
across the state. And that's not
something we should be proud of.
So that, to me, should be raising
a ton of red flags saying, Hey,
over here, something's wrong,
something's wrong. So we need to
do something about that. And I'm
sure.
Cheri Dotterer: Do you know any
scores about writing? I haven't
Jason Ortitay: I saw the writing
scores. No, but I would imagine
they're probably correlated.
Cheri Dotterer: They're even
worse. I will tell you this: the
scores that I found on the
the national report card, overall,
for fourth graders across the
the country was at the basic level,
it wasn't even proficient level,
it was at the basic level. And
there 75% of fourth graders can
write at a basic level. It's
horrible.
Jason Ortitay: And it's getting
worse. And you know, when one of
the main issues, and this is one
of the reasons why I wanted to
tackle one issue like this is
we haven't done anything
transformative to our school
system statewide. And I mean,
probably at least 20 years,
maybe even longer. I mean, I've
been in office now for nine
years. And we just recently, I
would say last year, we finally
made some bigger changes. And
especially around early
literacy, we were able to get
post-secondary schools to
finally start implementing. if
you're going to school to be a
teacher to take classes in
structured literacy and science
of reading so that when you
graduate and you pass your
practice that you know what
you're doing, and you know how
to teach this stuff because we
weren't doing that before. And
I'll be honest, we got a lot of
pushback from the schools, a lot
of pushback, as a matter of fact,
even after the bill was signed
into law by Governor Wolf, a lot
of the schools refused to even
acknowledge its existence, and
they were not going to do
anything. Thanks to then
Secretary Eric Haggerty, I was
able to team up with him. And we
were able to get this fixed
pretty quickly. So starting next
school year, that will be a
requirement for all post
secondary schools across the
state.
Cheri Dotterer: Hey, now, my
little soapbox is, next next next
the feather is mandating education
for writing skills because
kids, teachers don't know how to
teach kids how to write. And so
that's my little soapbox that
I'm going to pull again for our
next round of transformation.
But that's all the sidebar and
and some of that history.
Bearing in mind that a lot of
the people that are going to
listen today. Do not understand
anything about these bills. What
is in House Bill 998? What is in
Senate Bill 801? What are the
similarities and
differences and what's
happening?
Jason Ortitay: So I will. I will
make this as easy as I can to
explain so that both the Senate and
House members can introduce
legislation and Senator Ahmed
and I, along with Representative
Fleming, who's my Democrat co
prime in the house, And Senator
Williams, who is a Senator,
Ahmed's co-prime in the Senate's
we've Republicans and Democrats on
both sides, we introduced the
It is the same bill; it just has a
different number, everything
will be the same. But for it to get signed into
law, it has to pass both
chambers, and then go to the
governor for signature. So we
figured if we couldn't get the
bill to move in the house, maybe
Do we get to move to the Senate or
vice versa. So that's why
there are two bills; they do the
It's the same thing. The language
is the same. We've been working.
together on this now for the
whole year. So there are no.
differences between the two
bills; the only difference is
the bill number. That's it. So
Cheri Dotterer: thank you for
clarifying that because I was
trying to compare them, and it
looked the same. But I
was like, okay, am I missing
something.
Jason Ortitay: So, the original
language, as introduced, is going
to change. Over the last year,
we've been meeting with
different stakeholders,
different groups, advocacy
groups, experts. So we're both
writing an amendment right now.
We're waiting on the Department
of Education to get back to us
on their final input. And then
the language of the original
introduce Bill, which is what
everyone can see right now will
be updated and changed. And I
will tell you, I will go through.
the step by step about what is
actually, in the amendment and
what will be in the bill as it
moves forward. So here we go. I
think right off the bat, one of
the most important thing is that early
screenings. So,
across the state, kindergarten
through third grade, every
the student will be required to be
screened at least three times
per year. And we do stipulate it.
has to be at the beginning of
the year, the middle part of the
year, and somewhere near the end
of the year, we don't lay out
the exact dates, we leave that
up to the schools for their
discretion. But it doesn't mean
they won't be tested more.
The reason we do these
three screenings are to track
progress. If they're not
tracking where they need to be,
then we'll screen again, and
we'll figure out where they are.
And we'll give them an
individualized plan. And that's
the second part of this bill is
if kids are falling behind, then
they need to be given an
improvement plan or reading
plan. And that's something that
the teacher can work with the
parents and the students on to
make sure that they're not
falling behind because we all
know how important it is to
learn how to read proficiently
by the end of third grade. So
that's that part of it, in
addition to the screen score, so
Cheri Dotterer: let me pause
there. So then the progress then
that with an individualized plan
that move takes them to
Title One before they would ever
get to an IEP or 504.
Jason Ortitay: Yes, and that's
so that's a two-fold: there's a
There is a reason for that. One is
down the line. It's like
preventative health care. You
get your you get your shots,
your vaccines, you go through
your checkups, what we're trying
to do is preventative care here,
so that there's a little bit
more of an upfront cost, but
down the line, it saves a lot of
money. The money's important,
but not as important as quality.
of life. So, to me, by hitting
this early and making sure that
kids are proficient, and we and
we're catching this so that we can
get them set up for a better
quality of life for the rest of
their academic career and
beyond. So those are the two primary ones.
reasons why this early screening
is so important.
Cheri Dotterer: And I'm going to
pause you there before you move
on. Because I want the listeners
to hear this quote: this
statement. It costs eight times
as much money here in
Pennsylvania, to have a kid on
special education, and it does
general education. Right now, before this bill is passed. What
I've seen the historical
records, as I'm looking through
the statistics, it cost about $20,000. To
educate a child is going to cost
160,000 As soon as we add any of
those specialized supports. So
the title, one is going to be a
bridge in between where it might
cost them a little bit more
money, but it's not going to be
near the $160,000 to educate.
So, just understand what
we're trying to do is save the
state money through these universal
screenings. And
Jason Ortitay: that's a really
important part because our
special education costs line
item has been exploding. I mean,
it's growing at an exponential
rate. It's not a linear growth,
it is exponential. And we need
to get this under control
because we can't afford to
to allow this to continue
happening.
Cheri Dotterer: Yes, so second
part of your amendments,
Jason Ortitay: second part,
teacher training. So we require
all the schools that are
participating in this, and we
will be mandating the statewide
if this bill passes, that all
teachers K through fourth grade.
Some administrators and reading
specialists, as well as special
ed teachers will be required to
get training and structured
literacy as part of this
legislation. And I know
everyone's probably wondering,
well, who's going to pay for this?
Well, part of the agreement that
we've made so far with some of
the stakeholders in the
the department is the state
will be providing all of the
financial resources for
every school district across the
state that hasn't already
implemented this. There are
schools that are already doing
this. I have four back at home.
in my district that already
doing everything here, they
won't need to. They will not
need to change anything. So we
want to make sure that we're
giving the teachers the
resources they need to
effectively teach this
curriculum because without that
It doesn't work.
Cheri Dotterer: So, my
understanding, just hearing the
scuttlebutt and being
around the folks in Berks County
is many of the districts herein
Berks County has already
started educating their
teachers. I took the
Wilson introductory course
myself, so I had some
understanding of what they were
being taught. I have no desire.
to be a prac. A practitioner, so
I did not complete the
course. So that's two more
courses. So there are three.
courses that these teachers have
to take to be certified to
understand what happens with
structured literacy.
Jason Ortitay: Yeah, and the
Wilson certification is
expensive. It's expensive and
it is time-consuming. It's not
easy to get, but once people get
it, I'll tell you, we had some
pushback here in my local school
district at first, but every
a single teacher who went through
it, who had some, some
reservations have, they've all
flipped, and they love it. They're
I am so happy they went through it,
they can see the difference
they're making their students
progress. We're in the year.
three, I think in my home
district now, and you're really
starting to see the results of
this. It's really.
working.
Cheri Dotterer: It's it's
It is amazing to see where they
taught before and how Wilson and
some of the other Orton
Gillingham programs change it.
Wilson's very popular in
Pennsylvania, but in other parts
of the country, they use other
programs, but they're all based
on the science that Orton
Gillingham was found. So
Orton was one professor
Gillingham was another. It was
two professors. So that's
where, oh gee, comes from in our
world of structure literacy? And
so Wilson is one of the programs
and that's very popular here in
Pennsylvania. So it's, I believe, what most of the intermediate.
units are utilized as their
education gets disseminated.
Jason Ortitay: I believe that's
correct, at least out here for
the two that I have.
Cheri Dotterer: Yeah. So we've
already covered my next
the question, which is the same and
different because they're all
the same. Were there any other
parts of the bill that you
wanted to talk about? Before I
ask my last question,
Jason Ortitay: right. So
there's, I think there's three
more reports here. And I'll go
through them fairly quickly. So
if we're going to require the
entire state to do this, all 500
school districts instead of each
school districts vet their
own vendors and going
Throughout the whole process,
because that is time-consuming
and a pain in the butt. This
Bill creates a committee with
subject matter experts to pick
all the high-quality vendors,
it's going to be an open and
transparent process, you will
see the scores and how these
vendors were selected. And then
every school district can pick
from this list of vendors on
which curriculum or which,
which, if they want to use
amplify if they want to use
ame, whatever letters, whatever
program they want to use, it's
vetted, it's proven, and it'll
save the school district a lot
of time and money in picking
that out. So that was what was
something that was not
originally in the bill. But
after working with other groups
and PDE. That's something they
wanted to see. So happy to
oblige.
Cheri Dotterer: So, and just so
people are aware of what Jason
mentioned, was the company
amplify that's another program
similar to Wilson.
Jason Ortitay: Yeah. And there's
a lot of these groups out there,
we want to make sure
because not all of them are high
quality. And many of them just said, Oh, well, we're science.
of reading, and they put their
stamp on it. And people think
that that that's it. So we want
to make sure that we're getting.
It's the real, genuine deal here. So
that part's important. The next
part state reporting, right now
in the state of Pennsylvania, we
I have no idea who's using this
curriculum and who's who's using
who is implementing structured
literacy, we have no idea.
Nobody's reporting it to the
Department of Education. So it's
we have to go and ask
every single school district
what they're doing. We need that
information. And then we're
I am going to be tracking this one
this bill signed in law, who's
doing it? What do your scores
look like? Have they improved?
Are they not improving? Are you
getting training, those sorts of
things, because we need that we
needed at the state level to
make sure that this is working.
And the last part, this this
The last part came from one
of my colleagues, we're going to
ban three queueing in the state
of Pennsylvania.
Cheri Dotterer: Say that again,
Jason Ortitay: we're going to ban
lottery queueing. No more, no
more of the old literacy
programs, structured literacy,
no more queuing to get kids to
guess what the word is by
looking at pictures that that's
done. That came as a
request from one of the
stakeholder groups to insert
that's in there. So that will be
implemented, just like others.
states have done as well,
because we thought that, Oh,
well. We're going to we're going to
mandate everyone use structured
literacy and high quality
vendors across the state, but
we're still going to allow you
to use the three cueing so we
said no, we're not doing that
anymore. That's going to be in
the bill. And we won't be able
to teach these old methods.
don't work and are not backed by
science.
Cheri Dotterer: Ah, okay. I
understand what you're saying.
now. I'm glad you elaborated a
a little bit because I was like,
what they tried to sell me. So
that I did not realize was going to
it was part of it. I
don't see the new amended words.
But that is good because
that was a lot of what I was
taught back in the 70s. About
language. And yeah, it didn't
always work. It didn't always
work.
Jason Ortitay: Yeah. And that
was the mixed and a lot of
schools right now. We're still
teaching balanced literacy. And
that's what that is, you know,
I'm on the basic education
funding Commission, we have to
get a report out by January
about changing the formula. And
I'm asking a lot of the
superintendents, Hey, are you
using structured literacy? And a
lot of them are telling me, No,
they're using balance, and you
go back and look at their
scores and their kids are
suffering. And they keep telling
me we don't have the money to
make the switch and change the
curriculum. And I'm sitting, I'm
thinking, Well, alright, so now
we're chicken or egg here, like
what happens first? We can't
get, and then they're
complaining about special ed
costs down the line. And I'm
like, let's fix this up, right?
So we don't have those huge.
costs.
Cheri Dotterer: I am so glad
that education is finally taking
a proactive approach to making
the changes. I will get my
soapbox again, we need to also
have just a little bit of
information in there about
teaching teachers how to write,
I think that is going to be one
of those things. It doesn't come.
in this bill. I'm hoping that
the next round of bills that we
can add that because it is one
of the parts that, as I was out
at the International Dyslexia
Association Conference, earlier
this month, right before the
rally in Harrisburg, and even
those curriculums that are out
there, not all of them have
caught on to anything with
reading, I mean writing. And so
there's a gap even in the
structure of literacy programs
and curricula, with how to
create explicit systematic,
cumulative, multi-sensory
writing programs. The area that
I see that the deficit is
cumulative. There's a lot of
structure on how to write
letters. But that cumulative
approach to integrate it into
reading is where we need to make
extra support.
Jason Ortitay: No, I agree with
you. And you know, one of the
The hardest thing is a legislator
is that when we go and ask for
things, and we write
legislation, a lot of times it
gets watered down over time. Look, on
average, it takes six years to
get a bill signed into law and
we only serve two-year terms in
the house. So it's hard to get
bills passed. So sometimes we
have to settle for basically
some of the breadcrumbs from
our whole loaf of bread and just
try to keep coming back over and
over again. Yeah, that's what we
did last year. That's how we
were able to get voluntary.
structured literacy in the state
along with what I talked about
earlier with post-secondary
training. That was step one,
step two is the full rollout.
And then, in step three, we are happy to
incorporate the writing. But
also, how do we how to recapture
those kids that we lost after
the fourth grade that is no longer
going to be part of this
program? Because we have to get
there, we're seeing other states
start to implement programs to
go back after those; I'll call
they lost kids because we
failed them. We cannot let them
just go off without
trying to do something. So
that'll be the next step after
this.
Cheri Dotterer: Oh, thank you.
That was one of my other
questions is, what are we doing
about those kids who are
struggling and are going to
graduate? So I remember when I
graduated in 1982 from high
school, that like 50% of my high
school class struggled with
reading. And there was a big
push then and, of course, whole
literacy was the big thing.
Their balance literacy didn't
even exist yet. And so it has
It changed over the years.
And what is in the holes that I
see, there was a big push
early on with penmanship. And he
had practice writing and then
all of a sudden, writing
disappeared but I do know
that curriculum mandate took
pulling back, writing into the
curriculum, learning how to
handwrite learning how to write
cursive, learning how to
the transition from the reading to
the writing, and so I'm a
resource for you if you need
that background. But I commend
Thank you for everything that you've
done. It is amazing that this.
has come to this point. Now you
told me around 930. Today, the
Senate is voting on something; what are they doing at 930? This
morning.
Jason Ortitay: So this morning,
the Senate Education Committee
is having a hearing at Senate
Bill 801, which is the mirror
bill of the structure literacy
bill from the House. They're
having expert testimony from
many different people, this
morning, about what's in the
bill, how beneficial it is, why
it's necessary, and what it can
do for the state of
Pennsylvania. I hope
that after they have the hearing.
this morning, that it will have
the votes to get out of
committee in advance. Once we
add the amendment and
hopefully, soon it'll it'll see
a vote. But this is big. This
morning is huge, because
this hearing, hopefully, will
convince the state senators on
the education committee that
this is necessary; it needs to
be voted out of committee and
move forward in the legislative
process.
Cheri Dotterer: Okay, so for
those of you who are out there
that is Pennsylvania's call
your Senator, call your
representative and say, Hey,
let's move forward. This is very
important. And I'm so grateful
that you were able to clarify.
some of those questions for me
today. Because there was a when
I go reading through that. I'm
going, Oh, I see just many more
things that need to happen. But
you know, this is a big step. So
a huge, huge step forward for
helping her kids and not having
situations like Ben.
Jason Ortitay: And that's the
important part. You know, I have
a couple of constituents who have
gone through very similar
stories, just like then, and you
see, like, they're just sad,
they were depressed, they're
causing trouble. And then all of
a sudden, they finally get what
they need, and their whole life
turns around.
Cheri Dotterer: Alright, amen.
That is amazing. And dates.
Jason Ortitay: Exactly. And that's why we do what we do is
to help these kids have a fair
shot at life because we are not
giving them what they need right
now. And we need to change that.
Yeah.
Cheri Dotterer: So, for those of
you who are older or don't have
kids in school right now, the
prison pipeline has really been
said kids who can't read,
write, and do math. And so the
other thing is that 33% of all
IEPs are because kids can't
read, write, and do math. It's
not because of autism. It's not
because of emotional
disturbance. It's these three.
areas. And if we don't get those
three areas under under
control, our costs are going to
skyrocket even more. So. Thank
you. Thank you very much, Jason,
for everything that you're
doing. Is there anything that
you'd like to say in closing?
Jason Ortitay: Just real quick,
you know, I was at a conference
a couple of weeks ago, I think her
name was Nancy. She said the
This is the first time that most people get
a reading screening to see if
they have dyslexia or have a
reading disorder is when they're
in the federal or when they're
in prison. It's the first time.
Yeah. And throw another
staggering stat at you: over 50%
of Pennsylvania State Prison
population can't read and, or
has a reading disorder. I mean,
over 50%, So that goes right to
what you're talking about.
That's, that's another reason.
why is so important that we
get this right.
Cheri Dotterer: Yeah, it's so
sad. It is atrocious
that this has gone on this long
in life but we're making a
change, and that's what counts.
So, the writing glitch is
typically published via apple
and Spotify and Google podcasts
anywhere podcasts are
distributed. On the second and
fourth Tuesday of the month.
This has been a special episode.
that I've done live on Facebook.
I'm hoping that it's live on
Facebook right now. Tomorrow,
Russ Lloyd is going to his
episode is going to be released.
He has a website where he's
curating all articles on
dyslexia, and Jason, lives in
the area around you somewhere.
He belongs to I believe, if
I remembering correctly, the
Providence school, I think he is
part of that system. He has
curated this website, and they
have an app that they're working
on to help kids with dyslexia as
well. So look for that tomorrow
on your favorite podcast app. Do
me a favor if you liked today's
episode, if you like any of the
other episodes, subscribe, and
Hit that Review button and give
us some feedback on what
you're thinking about this
podcast. And you can always go
right to the writing glitch.com
and you will get all of the
episodes there. You can look for
The Moon national kids Summit,
which was done back in August.
And that was every day, Monday
through Friday. So there's some.
things that we have done to
help get the information to you.
Remember, you were put here for
such a time as this. Have a
wonderful Monday. And thank you,
Jason, for being here, and thank
you for not making me say your
name more than once.
Jason Ortitay: Thank you, Chair.
I appreciate it.