It started with the jarring revelation that Black male students in Hingham, Mass., were up to four times more likely than white peers to be classified with a learning disability.
Hingham’s Executive Director of Student Services Suzanne Vinnes (Wheelock’01,’17) reached out to her alma mater for help. And thanks to the National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL), based at the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, and directed by Hank Fien, Nancy H. Roberts Professor of Educational Innovation, she received training for faculty about disproportionality, assessment, instruction, and intervention, so that students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds do not fall behind.
In October 2021, the US Department of Education signed a five-year contract to house NCIL at Wheelock. NCIL’s mission “is to increase access to, and use of, evidence-based approaches to screen, identify, and teach students with literacy-related disabilities, including dyslexia.”
With the center, says David Chard, dean of Wheelock, the college bolsters its education equity efforts. ‟NCIL will be key to helping Wheelock transform education systems to support students who struggle with learning to read.”