Disciplinary Literacy: Virginia School

The purpose of this survey was to examine Speech-Language Pathologists’ (SLPs) confidence in their ability to support student outcomes by addressing language-literacy needs, to align therapy to educational standards, and to align therapy to student content areas. A total of 237 school-based SLPs in Virginia completed a 19-item survey. Results indicated school-based SLPs were largely unfamiliar with the concept of disciplinary literacy and only 53% of the respondents indicated that they were “Very confident” or “Somewhat confident” in their ability to align their therapy to students’ content areas. Confidence level was found to be negatively correlated with SLPs’ experience level (rs = ？.14–？.24, p < .05) and positively correlated with their rating of their education (rs = .28–.39, p < .01). These results suggest school-based SLPs could benefit from professional development in the area of disciplinary literacy as well as the broader area of adolescent language and literacy interventions