This podcast episode was sponsored by Heggerty Phonemic Awareness.

What’s inside: In this episode, Leslie Zoroya, Reading and Language Arts Coordinator at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, joins us to talk about her work in the field of literacy. Leslie shares her experience working as a middle school reading interventionist and coordinator at juvenile justice schools. Her work now at LACOE focuses on supporting Los Angeles teachers to build an understanding of the Science of Reading, diverse learners, Structured Literacy, and anti-racist instructional practices to help improve student reading proficiency and build educational equity in their county.

Leslie is passionate about the ways in which literacy intersects with social justice and racial equity. She is part of a team at LACOE that lead the charge to create a white paper on Supporting the African American Learner which has just been published. And is also a collaborator on the “Getting Reading Right” project that hosts an incredible amount of resources to support teacher delivery of Structured, systematic reading instruction.

Links: See links mentioned in this podcast listed below -

• African American Learner Initiative Website Link: https://www.lacoe.edu/Curriculum-Instruction/Equity-Diversity-and-Inclusion/African-American-Learners

• African American Learner Document Link: https://www.lacoe.edu/Portals/0/Curriculum-Instruction/Supporting_the_African_American_Learner.pdf?ver=2021-02-28-192734-950

• Leading Literacy Podcast Link: https://www.lacoe.edu/Curriculum-Instruction/Reading-Language-Arts/Leading-Literacy

• Getting Reading Right Link: https://www.lacoe.edu/Curriculum-Instruction/Reading-Language-Arts/Getting-Reading-Right