The Invisible Dyslexics: How Public School Systems in Baltimore and Elsewhere Discriminate Against Poor Children in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Early Reading Difficulties

Our nation's general failure to diagnose and treat early reading difficulties is disproportionately harmful to poor and minority students. At least 20 percent of the children in Baltimore City public schools and other large urban districts can be called "invisible dyslexics." Though definitions of dyslexia vary, it is usually understood to mean difficulties in learning to read. "Invisible dyslexics" are children whose academic futures are doomed because their problems in learning to read are either diagnosed too late and treated too little, or not diagnosed or treated at all.