Fairfield has partnered with Wilson Language Training to launch the Wilson Reading System Level I Certification, a one-year, 10-credit online certificate program that prepares participants to teach students with dyslexia.
...we are thrilled to welcome educators, paraeducators, and private tutors into the Dyslexia Interventionist Certificate Program so they can also develop the specialized skills necessary to help advance off-track readers, including those identified with dyslexia.
— Jule McCombes-Tolis, PhD, Director of Reading and Language Development
The Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions has launched a new online graduate certificate program in multisensory structured literacy instruction, in partnership with Wilson Language Training. Fairfield’s Online Dyslexia Interventionist Certificate program includes Level I Certification in The Wilson Reading System® (WRS), which is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction and is accredited by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). In addition, candidates who successfully complete the program are eligible for certification as a Structured Literacy/Dyslexia Interventionist with the IDA’s subsidiary, the Center for Effective Reading Instruction.
As states continue to enact new dyslexia laws, this online 10-credit graduate certificate program expands opportunities for educators to effectively help students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities become fluent, independent readers. Widely used in schools and districts across the United States, the WRS is designed for students who require the most intensive level of reading instruction.
Jule McCombes-Tolis, PhD, director of Reading and Language Development, will oversee the new program. An experienced classroom educator certified in special education and remedial reading, Dr. McCombes-Tolis has served as chief academic officer for educator training initiatives for the IDA. She was recently appointed by the State of Connecticut’s House of Representatives, to serve as co-chair of the Task Force to Analyze the Implementation of Laws Governing Dyslexia Instruction and Training.
Dr. McCombes-Tolis shared, “Fairfield is so pleased to offer our graduate candidates the unique opportunity to earn a Level I Wilson Reading System certification as part of their MA and Sixth-Year degrees and we are thrilled to welcome educators, paraeducators, and private tutors into the Dyslexia Interventionist Certificate program so they can also develop the specialized skills necessary to help advance off-track readers, including those identified with dyslexia.”
The first cohort of the Online Dyslexia Interventionist Certificate program has launched and Fairfield University is now accepting applications for the fall 2019 and spring 2020 cohorts. The program is pending final approval by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). Visit fairfield.edu/wilson-reading-system to learn more.
