starbucks dyslexia case study

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Dyslexic employee wins discrimination case against Starbucks

Campaigners say tribunal finding in favour of Meseret Kumulchew highlights duty to make allowances for dyslexic staff

Starbucks has lost a disability discrimination case after it wrongly accused a dyslexic employee of falsifying documents when she had simply misread numbers she was responsible for recording.

Campaigners say the ruling highlights the duty of all employers to make allowances for staff with dyslexia.

In December, an employment tribunal found that Starbucks had victimised Meseret Kumulchew after she inaccurately recorded the water and fridge temperatures as part of her duties as a supervisor at Starbucks in Clapham, south-west London.

The tribunal heard that Starbucks accused Kumulchew of falsifying the recordings, reduced her responsibilities and ordered her to retrain.

A separate hearing to determine how much compensation Starbucks should pay will be held in the next few weeks.

Kumulchew, who is still employed by Starbucks, said she had made her bosses aware of her dyslexia, and the accusation of falsifying numbers had made her want to take her own life.

She told the BBC : “There was a point that I wanted to commit suicide. I am not a fraud. The name fraud itself shouldn’t exist for me. It’s quite serious.

“I nearly ended my life. But I had to think of my kids. I know I’m not a fraud. I just made a mistake.”

The tribunal found that Starbucks had failed to make reasonable adjustments for Kumulchew’s reading difficulties under the 2010 Equality Act , which replaced the Disability Act. It said the company showed little or no understanding of equality issues.

The legislation is vague on whether dyslexia, a condition that affects one in 10 people, constitutes a disability. It defines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on … normal day-to-day activities”. It goes on to suggest that under stressful conditions people with dyslexia can be seen to suffer such an impairment.

Kate Saunders, the chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association, said Kumulchew’s plight highlighted a common problem. “All organisations must make reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities, including dyslexia, under the Equality Act 2010. They should have appropriate policies in place and make sure these are movements to avoid discrimination, including in the recruitment process, the work environment and colleague reactions,” she said.

“Sadly our national helpline receives numerous calls from adults who are facing serious problems and discrimination in the workplace. Many have found themselves very emotional, stressed, anxious and feeling as if they have nowhere else to turn. These feelings, which with the right support and awareness could easily be avoided, can lead to time off work and loss of productivity. People with dyslexia can bring unique skills to an employer and they should be highly sought after.”

Kumulchew urged Starbucks to follow its own approach to training baristas in making adjustments for her. “Starbucks says ‘do, show and tell’. That works brilliantly for me,” she said. “Visual, physical and reading, they all go together. If you miss one of them, I’m lost. I’ll struggle, don’t worry, help me, but I’ll get there in my own speed, but I won’t affect your business because [for] every customer I’ll roll out the red carpet. I want to apply Starbucks’ mission statement and the training I [was] given to the full. I love my job.”

She added: “They [Starbucks] could make life easier. Give me time to backtrack or give me another person to help. Eventually it will become routine. All the policy is in small writing [so] make it bigger [so] it doesn’t muddle up my brain to digest.”

Starbucks said it could not discuss the case as it was still in negotiation with Kumulchew, but said it was committed to having a “diverse and inclusive workforce”.

In a statement it said: “We have been working with the British Dyslexia Association on improving the support we provide to our employees, and did so concerning Meseret Kumulchew in 2015.

“We recognise however that we need to do more, which is why we are investigating what additional support we can provide.”

The advocacy group Dyslexia Action said Kumulchew’s courage in pursuing the case had set an example for others.

Its chief executive, Stephen Hall, said: “Without the correct support, people with dyslexia can suffer a huge loss of confidence and low self-esteem. This is a great shame as those with dyslexia have much to offer in the workplace. Many people with dyslexia work very differently from conventional methods, but employers stand to gain great benefit from the different perspective that this brings and ability to think outside the box.”

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Starbucks dyslexia case: Employee wins tribunal over victimisation that left her suicidal

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A woman with dyslexia who worked at Starbucks says she nearly tried to kill herself because the coffee giant treated her so badly because it did not understand her condition.

A tribunal found Meseret Kumulchew was discriminated case against after her condition led to her making mistakes on forms.

Her difficulty with reading, writing and telling the time - which she says she had always made clear to her employer - led to her supervisor duties being reduced, leaving her with suicidal feelings.

• Read more How modern technology and software is empowering dyslexic students

Speaking to the BBC , she said: “There was a point where I wanted to commit suicide. I am not a fraud. It’s quite serious. I nearly ended my life. But I had to think of my kids. I Know I’m not a fraud. I just made a mistake.”

Ms Kumulchew worked at a branch in Clapham, south-west London, where her job involved recording temperatures of water and fridges at certain times of the day and writing them on a duty roster.

She said she needed to be shown how to do tasks visually, as she was a visual learner and stressed the most important thing that could be done was to “apply what Starbucks say - ‘do show and tell’ - which works brilliantly for me as I can do it physically”.

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She added that the company should have “brought in the Dyslexia Association” and that having someone check what she had done would have helped her.

The tribunal found Starbucks did not make any reasonable adjustments to help her do her job and instead discriminated against her and victimised her.

Starbucks said in a statement: “Starbucks works hard to ensure all employees, including those with disabilities, are supported at work.

"We have been working with the British Dyslexia Association on improving the support we provide to our employees, and did so concerning Meseret Kumulchew in 2015.

"We recognise however that we need to do more, which is why we are investigating what additional support we can provide.

"We cannot comment further on this case as the matter has not concluded.”

• SOAK on overcoming dyslexia to make the Mercury Prize shortlist
• Richard Branson's inspiring note to nine-year-old with dyslexia
• Dyslexia a 'meaningless label' claim experts in controversial new book
• Revealed: Dyslexia caused by communication problems in brain,

The CEO of the British Dyslexia Association , Dr Kate Saunders, said: “Many dyslexics are struggling in the work place with very high levels of anxiety, because employers do not have the training or the awareness to make adjustments for them.”

Dyslexia is identified as a disability, as defined in the Equality Act 2010.

According to Lexxic , which provides services for adults with learning difficulties in the workplace, 1 in 10 people in the UK has dyslexia, while 1 in 4 of those suffer with severe dyslexia.

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NEWS & RESOURCES

• February 10, 2016
• | Employment Law

Starbucks Loses Workplace Dyslexia Case

A dyslexic employee has won an Employment Tribunal against coffee retail chain Starbucks.

Meseret Kumulchew, a barista at a Starbucks in Clapham, London, suffered discrimination in her role after she was wrongly accused of falsifying documents.

Ms Kumulchew made mistakes in her role due to her difficulties with reading and writing. Yet instead of making reasonable adjustments to Ms Kumulchew’s duties as per her request, her management instead demoted her and asked her to retrain. This reaction caused Ms Kumulchew great personal anguish.

The Employment Tribunal found that the employer should have made reasonable adjustments for Ms Kumulchew’s dyslexia, especially as they knew about her disability from the start of her employment.

Kate Saunders, chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association said: “While we can’t comment on individual legal cases, all organisations must make reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities, including dyslexia, under the Equality Act 2010.”

“They should have appropriate policies in place and make sure there are measures to avoid discrimination, including in the recruitment process, the work environment and colleague reactions.”

What adjustments can an employer make to help a dyslexic person?

Ms Kumulchew’s complaint was that she was not given adequate time or support to finish her tasks, which her management could have resolved with relatively simple adjustments but chose not to. But what can you do to prevent such complaints in the first place? Here are some small adjustments that you can make to assist any colleagues with the condition.

In writing:

• Do not use italics, underline text or write completely in capitals.
• Keep lines short and increase the text size and spacing where possible.
• Use bold to highlight key points.
• Don’t justify text.
• Keep their workspace as calm as possible. This ideally means away from ringing phones or busy thoroughfares.
• A second computer monitor may help them to declutter their desktop and more easily concentrate on tasks.
• Recognise that they may need more time or notice to complete tasks than their colleagues.

Without the right support a person with dyslexia can suffer from low self-esteem and a loss of confidence. Yet an employee with the disability may bring an unconventional and beneficial perspective to the business.

Unsure about your responsibilities as an employer? We can help. Give us a call on 0844 324 5840 or contact us online to find out how.

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Starbucks dyslexia case: implications

You will be aware that Starbucks employee Meseret Kumulchew has recently won a disability discrimination claim on the basis of her dyslexia. But what are the implications?

Implications

In Ms Kumulchew’s case, her dyslexia meant that she made mistakes in recording information, including water and fridge temperatures. When these mistakes were discovered, Ms Kumulchew’s duties were reduced, and she was told to re-train. These reactions left her “feeling suicidal”.

In this case, Starbucks had obviously chosen to fight the wrong employee. Ms Kumulchew has turned out to be a particularly compelling Claimant, and has undoubtedly received the sympathy of the nation for the ordeal she has been through.

In terms of the legalities of the situation, dyslexia can amount to a disability, under the Equality Act 2010, if it has a substantial adverse effect on an employee’s day to day activities and is likely to be long-term.

This case has highlighted the steps employers might need to take in relation to dyslexic employees. The British Dyslexia Association points out that appropriate policies need to be put in place to make sure there are measures to avoid discrimination in the recruitment process, the work environment, and colleague reactions.

Such adjustments are difficult to pinpoint outside a particular context, but would include encouraging staff to communicate any difficulties, giving them advance notice of tasks that may be challenging, and providing support in those tasks. Part of the problem here was that Ms Kumulchew’s honesty and abilities were doubted by Starbucks, and reactions along these lines also should be avoided.

A good starting point would be a good understanding of the impact the disability has on employee’s work, and we suggest that staff be asked to disclose any disabilities at an early stage in their employment so that any future potential issues can be addressed as soon as possible.

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Dyslexic client wins discrimination case against Starbucks

By Monidipa Fouzder 22 February 2016

• No comments

Who? Jenna Ide, employment law solicitor at Thomas Mansfield, London.

Why is she in the news? Acted for Meseret Kumulchew, who won a disability discrimination case against Starbucks.

Kumulchew, who has dyslexia, worked as a supervisor at one of Starbucks’ London branches. She was responsible for taking the temperature of fridges and water at specific times and entering the results in a duty roster. She was accused of falsifying documents after mistakenly entering incorrect information.

Starbucks said: ‘Starbucks works hard to ensure all employees, including those with disabilities, are supported at work. We have worked with the British Dyslexia Association to improve the support we provide to employees, and did so concerning Meseret Kumulchew in 2015.

‘We recognise, however, that we need to do more, which is why we are investigating what additional support we can provide. We cannot comment further on this case as the matter has not concluded.’

Thoughts on the case: ‘I’m unable to comment directly because of a forthcoming remedies hearing. Some people have commented that this will lead to a deluge of claims being brought by dyslexic employees. I don’t believe that will happen if employers provide reasonable adjustments and correct support.’

Dealing with the media: ‘Once the BBC published the story on its website, there was a lot of interest. I heard that the British Dyslexia Association also received numerous press enquiries.’

Why become a lawyer? ‘I became interested in employment law after a family member was involved in an unfair dismissal case while I was doing my LPC. I helped to reach a successful resolution.’

Career high: ‘This case. I have worked with Miss Kumulchew for some time now and she’s absolutely lovely.’

Career low: ‘Many people suffer depression when employment issues arise. I’ve dealt with several suicidal clients. I try to help even though I’m not a counsellor.’

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Starbucks employee wins dyslexia discrimination case.

Jenna Ide , Senior Associate in Thomas Mansfield’s Empoyment team, represented Meseret Kumulchew in her successful case against Starbucks. The tribunal hearing lasted 8 days in September 2015. Miss Kumulchew was represented at the hearing by Rajiv Bhatt of Cloisters. The judgment was given in December 2015 and can be found here. The case was extensively reported in the national media, including the BBC .

The case is a useful reminder to employers to obtain medical advice in relation to any employees who may class as disabled to ensure that the appropriate steps can be taken and to avoid the risk of claims.

The duty to make reasonable adjustments falls squarely on the employer and is triggered in three situations, which include where a disabled employee is put at a substantial disadvantage.  For example, a requirement for a dyslexic employee to complete handwritten paperwork within a limited timescale is likely to put a dyslexic employee at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-dyslexic employees due to the difficulties faced by dyslexic individuals with writing, reading and spelling.  The employer is then required to take reasonable steps to avoid the disadvantage, for example, by providing speech-to-text software.  Whether an adjustment is reasonable or not involves an assessment of various factors, including the financial cost of making the adjustment and the size of the employer.  This duty places a positive duty on the employer to treat disabled employees more favourably.  Reasonable adjustments can be as simple as providing typed notes in large font and providing minutes of meetings “expeditiously”, both of which Starbucks failed to do in our client’s case.

An employer must also take care not only to treat the employee less favourably because of his/her disability (i.e. direct discrimination) but also not to treat the employee unfavourably because of something arising in consequence of the disability (i.e. discrimination arising from a disability).  For an example of the latter, if a dyslexic employee were to continually make errors in his/her work and was then subjected to capability procedures as a result, this treatment is likely to be unlawful unless it can be justified as being a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, which would be unlikely if adjustments had not been made or considered.

Jenna is very well placed to advise employers on reasonable adjustments for dyslexic employees or employees requiring the same. However, any dyslexic employees who are facing difficulties at work should act quickly as there are short time limits in the employment tribunals; claims must generally be brought within 3 months minus one day of the discriminatory act/failure, although there are limited circumstances in which the time limit can be extended.

If you would like to talk in confidence to one of our experienced solicitors or have any questions about discrimination then please call us on 020 7377 2829 or email us at  [email protected] .

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Dyslexic employee wins case against starbucks on grounds of discrimination.

An employment tribunal has found in favour a woman, who was wrongly accused by her employer, Starbucks, of falsifying documents, when she had simply misread numbers she was responsible for recording as a result of dyslexia.

Meseret Kumulchew, the employee, will receive damages of an amount to be determined later in a separate hearing. Ms Kumulchew, who is still employed by Starbucks, said she had made her bosses aware of her dyslexia.

The tribunal found that Starbucks had failed to make reasonable adjustments for Ms Kumulchew’s reading difficulties under the Equality Act, 2010. It said the company showed little or no understanding of equality issues.

Kate Saunders, the chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association, said Ms Kumulchew’s plight highlighted a common problem. “All organisations must make reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities, including dyslexia, under the Equality Act. They should have appropriate policies in place and make sure these are movements to avoid discrimination, including in the recruitment process, the work environment and colleague reactions,” she said.

Starbucks said it could not discuss the case as it was still in negotiation with Ms Kumulchew, In a statement it said: “We have been working with the British Dyslexia Association on improving the support we provide to our employees, and did so concerning Meseret Kumulchew in 2015. We recognise however that we need to do more, which is why we are investigating what additional support we can provide.”

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Starbucks Employee Wins Disability Discrimination Case

A woman with dyslexia has won an employment tribunal case on grounds that she suffered disability discrimination from her former employer, the US coffee giant Starbucks, which accused her of fraud by falsifying documents.

Ms Meseret Kumulchew won her case after the tribunal ruled she was unfairly treated by the corporation and subsequently made to perform lesser duties and told to retrain certain areas of her role. The company ignored her claim that she had unintentionally made the mistakes due to her issues with reading and writing.

Ms Kumulchew held a supervisory role at Starbucks’ Clapham branch in South-West London where her work involved recording the temperature of fridges and water at specific times of the day. After making an error she was accused of deliberately entering false information which the company claimed constituted an act of fraud. Ms Kumulchew claims that Starbucks had always been aware of her disability and insists the company did not develop her skills to cater for her disability. She contacted her superiors on at least one occasion request help and support. In her message she explained:

‘I’ll struggle, but don’t worry, help me and I’ll get there in my own time. I’m not going to affect your business, because for every customer I’ll roll out the red carpet. I love my job. Giving them a coffee may not be a big deal, but I’m making their life, for the day at least, happy.”

The tribunal ruled that Starbucks should have adjusted their training appropriately for Ms Kumulchew’s situation and thus had discriminated against her dyslexia as a direct result of their disregard, which also violated the company’s own equality principals

The consequences of the fraud accusation deeply affected Ms Kumulchew. In a recent interview she stated “The name fraud itself shouldn’t exist for me. It’s quite serious. I nearly ended my life. But I had to think of my kids. I know I’m not a fraud. I just made a mistake.”

Exploring the issue of dyslexia discrimination, Dr Kate Saunders of the British Dyslexia Association explained “One in 10 people has dyslexia to some degree. Many people will not know they have dyslexia because it wasn’t identified at school. Many dyslexics are struggling in the work place with very high levels of anxiety because employers do not have the training or the awareness to make adjustments for them.”

In response to the recent ruling, Starbucks released a statement: “We are in ongoing discussions with this Starbucks employee around specific workplace support and we are not able to comment on a case that has not yet been completed.”

There will now be another tribunal hearing to judge whether Ms Kumulchew is entitled to compensat

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Starbucks discriminated against dyslexic employee

Starbucks discriminated by disciplining an employee for reasons connected with dyslexia.

Kumulchew v Starbucks [ET] | 2015

Ms Kumulchew was a shift supervisor at Starbucks.

Her duties included taking the temperature of the fridges and water and recording these in the duty roster.

Ms Kumulchew was accused by Starbucks of falsifying documents after she recorded the information incorrectly.  She was investigated.  She argued the incorrect records were caused by her dyslexia.  Starbucks required her to produce a certificate evidencing her dyslexia.  Her GP advised there was no such thing and Starbucks could send her for an assessment.  They did not.

Ms Kumulchew was issued with a disciplinary warning and given lesser duties and told to retrain.

Ms Kumulchew was dyslexic. Starbucks were aware of this from an early stage. She brought a number of claims including disability discrimination.

• The Employment Tribunal Decision

The employment tribunal found that Starbucks had discriminated for a reason related to her disability by subjecting Ms Kumulchew to a disciplinary process and issuing her with a disciplinary warning.

Starbucks also failed to make reasonable adjustments as it did not provide her with typed disciplinary notes and they were not given quickly enough.

In this case Starbucks knew about Ms Kumulchew’s dyslexia, which was serious enough to amount to a disability. This will not be the case for everyone.

Starbucks could have made adjustments by printing procedures in bigger font, using different training methods and having work checked by colleagues.  Whether these sorts of adjustments are reasonable will depend on the organisation.  Where possible discuss the possible adjustments and agree them with the employee.

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Starbucks loses dyslexia case

An Employment Tribunal has held that a dyslexic employee was discriminated against by Starbucks and is entitled to compensation.[1]

Starbucks had accused its employee of falsifying company documents, as a result of the employee incorrectly recording information about refrigerator and water temperatures into a company log. As a result of the employee’s dyslexia, she struggles with reading, writing and telling the time. However, rather than make reasonable adjustments for her disability, Starbucks assumed that the employee had acted fraudulently and, instead, gave the employee reduced responsibilities.

The judgment serves as a useful reminder to employers of how important it is not to make any assumptions regarding an employee’s conduct and the importance of fully investigating the circumstances of any alleged misconduct and consider whether an employee may have a genuine reason for their behaviour, such as a disability. If so, the employer should then go on to consider what reasonable adjustments can be made so that an employee with a disability is not disadvantaged.

At Rooks Rider Solicitors, our dedicated  Employment  team is experienced in providing practical and proportionate advice to employers and employees on a wide range of matters, including those which become disputed. Contact a member of our  Employment team  to find out how we can help you or your business.

[1]  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35521061

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Real Life Examples of Discrimination in the Workplace

It’s difficult to believe that today, in the 21st century, discrimination is still a major issue, but as much as we would like to think that we live in a world full of peace, harmony and widespread acceptance, this just sadly isn’t the case. 

In fact, more than 25% of workers in the UK have reported having experienced workplace discrimination in some form, according to a study conducted by Sky to mark National Inclusion Week in 2018 which identified that prejudice towards gender, race and age remains fairly commonplace in UK businesses. 

That self-same study recognised that a youth-driven revolution could be underway to counteract this outdated way of thinking as ‘Generation Z’ – the under 25s population – are twice as likely to feel that employers should do more to promote inclusion in the workplace compared to the baby boomers of the workforce (the over 55s). 

Cases of Discrimination in the Workplace

If that is the case, we are looking at the potential for a very happy future in terms of where the world stands on discrimination, but it would seem that with over a quarter of the UK’s working population still admitting to being subject to such prejudice, that we have a long way to go before we get there, as you can see from the cases below. 

Starbucks Dyslexia Case

Starbucks employee Meseret Kumulchew was accused of fraud as her employer claimed she was falsifying documents after she mistakenly entered incorrect information when recording fridge temperatures in a duty roster. As a result, she was given lesser duties, taking away vital parts of her supervisor position and was told she needed to retrain before she could continue with those responsibilities which made up the job she loves.

In an interview, Meseret expressed that she was made to feel like a fraud and was on the verge of wanting to end her life. The only thing that held her back was the thought of her children. 

Meseret took Starbucks to an employment tribunal for disability discrimination as she stated that she had been upfront with her employees from the start, telling them that she was Dyslexic which means that she has difficulties with reading, writing and telling the time. She also advised them that she is a visual learner, meaning that she needs to be physically shown how to complete a task in order to learn. 

The tribunal found that Starbucks failed to make reasonable adjustments for Meseret and had discriminated against her due to the effects of her Dyslexia. It was also found that she was victimised by her employer and that there appeared to be little or no knowledge or understanding of equality issues within the business. 

Richemont Race Discrimination Case

Cheryl Spragg, an employee of Richemont (UK), which owns luxury brands including Cartier and Montblanc, was spied on by her employer, denied the opportunity to progress within the company and was bullied by HR and other staff members as a result of her skin colour.

Following a back injury, Richemont placed Cheryl under close surveillance for a number of days, following her to a wedding and even receiving images of her home and garden. Undoubtedly, this act was unnerving, intimidating and upsetting for her. 

Cheryl was also refused internal progression on the basis that she was black and had applied for the same post on three different occasions, with all three of the recruitment decisions being made by the same people. It was found that the company had a preference for white Europeans and the judge ruling in Cheryl’s claim against race discrimination in the workplace agrees that this was an act of direct discrimination since there was a lack of transparency and properly structured processes for scoring, marking and record-keeping as well as a complete absence of interview records. The HR team had no equality and diversity training and there were no black staff members at a senior level or on the HR team. 

In addition, Cheryl had been subject to bullying when other staff members refused to enter a lift with her which was found as a violation of her dignity. These employees were said to have laughed and pulled faces when Cheryl held the lift door open for them – they walked straight passed and waited for another lift to come. This incident meets the very definition of harassment under the Equality Act 2010 .  

When Cheryl complained to the HR department about the various events which she considered to be discriminatory, she was told to look for a new job and was accused of causing her colleagues distress. She was even told in an email from the HR team that she wasn’t the only ‘black member of staff’ within her team and no other racism allegations had been raised in the past. 

After the judge heard Cheryl’s case and considered the evidence, she won her claim and was awarded compensation for the traumatic and humiliating experience. 

ONS Sex Discrimination Case

Macro-economics specialist, Olwen Renowden, found herself a victim of sex discrimination when she was refused for two open positions at a grade six level by ONS – a role she was more than suitable for, holding professional credentials from some of the world’s most prestigious macro-economics employers such as the Bank of England and the IMF.

It was noted early on by Olwen that the company employed no female economists at grade six level, despite a headcount of over one hundred; and the posts that she and another female candidate (also more than qualified for the role) had applied for were both filled by male applicants – both of whom were young, inexperienced and had never worked at a grade six level prior to their appointment, let alone a specialism in macro-economics.

An additional vacancy was created for employees who had passed the grade six promotion board; however, this was only ever made available to male prospects – female candidates were not offered the same opportunity. 

Olwen raised a grievance but, unfortunately, her appeal was not upheld and she subsequently resigned from ONS. She refused to back down though, and applied to the Employment Tribunal with her case in January 2019 where is was agrees that favouritism was shown towards male staff. What’s more, the tribunal found that those who should have addressed the issue failed to do so, leading to the conclusion that the approach to gender balance pointed towards a culture where discrimination and, in particulat, sex discrimination, is not properly understood by those who are required to ensure its elimination. 

The tribunal found that Owlen’s claims of sex discrimination were successful and the ONS was ordered to pay compensation and interest. 

More about Workplace Discrimination

Here are only a small handful of cases of discimination in the workplace that have occurred in recent years; however, there are a host of other examples which you can view by simply doing a Google search for cases of discrimination in the workplace. 

I think we can all agree that cases like this shouldn’t be making the news. Not because they shouldn’t be reported – while discrimination is a problem, it should always be made known – but because stories like these shouldn’t be happening in the first place; and if you’ve been reading through the cases in this post in horror, hoping that nobody on your payroll is being made to feel discriminated against – or even the ones being prejudice – never fear. Read more about workplace discrimination and how you can combat it as an employer in our post Types of Discrimination in the Workplace . 

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Case Study: Ten year old child with severe dyslexia

This study discusses a ten year old Elementary School student with significant levels of dyslexia. Reading through this case study will help you recognize typical concerns, and possibly identify approaches and techniques to help you with your student. You will notice the weighing of factors and the considerations discussed. Every child is unique. No single overall approach applies to each and every child.

Student Profile

18 March 2014 Eric (M) 10 (Grade 2) Student ID ER3445752M Dyslexia Test https://www.dynaread.com/index.php?cid=testresults&pmp_id=ER3445752M646464

Input by Elaine Benton MA, with additional comments by Hans J.A. Dekkers. Both Dynaread Team members.

INPUT BASED ON PROVIDED BACKGROUND INFORMATION

School-provided information in italics.

Eric has been with us since kindergarten. Already then, he expressed difficulty learning letters and sounds, so when he moved to grade 1 we hoped with extra one-on-one help he would thrive. He didn't. At parent request and with school approval, he repeated.

ELAINE: From our perspective, looks like this was a very good decision.

His second time through was more successful, but when he hit grade 2 and had to start reading more, identifying more sight words, and writing sentences and short paragraphs, it was obvious that he didn't have the skills yet.

ELAINE: How poor is his writing? We tend to forget manual writing as we concentrate on reading but it can be such a painful, and not unrelated, issue that needs kind but concerted and steady attention.

ELAINE adds...: [Topic: About composition work with the limitations of low reading and handwriting removed]. The child tells/dictates an experience story (it could be a phrase, sentence or even a whole short story that they want to share) to the adult who writes it down and then uses the material that has been created as a text to be read. It ensures that the reading text only uses language that the child already knows and it's an excellent approach as long as the child is not able to parrot the story back from memory. If this is the case, the tutor should let the story go stale in memory until the child can't 'read' it entirely from memory. This is called the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and it is used with very, very basic readers. Reading teachers should really know or learn how to use this approach. It's hard to write as fast as they talk but its' worth it because this is a reading instruction technique that also helps them to begin to develop and order their thoughts cogently before they would otherwise be able to do so. It is, effectively, composition work with the limitations of low reading and handwriting removed.

HANS: Eric's test demonstrates extremely marginal literacy (near illiterate). In language development, a child progresses from listening to speaking, to reading, to writing, to complex authoring.

It is unreasonable to expect a near illiterate dyslexic to write. Copying, as part of a multi-modal, multi-sensory approach in learning to read: Yes. But writing originally composed short paragraphs or even short sentences on his own: No. This is simply out of reach and ability (based on his demonstrated reading skills in our test).

So he started Orton-Gillingham for a minimum of two hours per week, which continued daily until he began with the Dynaread program.

ELAINE (Certified Orton-Gillingham Remediator): [HANS: To be effective, in the perfect world...] Orton-Gillingham should really be done for a minimum of three one-hour long lessons per week ... with practice in between. Also, see below for recommendations regarding the type of OG program that is most beneficial.

He has no other learning disabilites, is not ESL, and is a very strong oral learner. Like many other dyslexics, if he could get through life orally, no one would probably realize how much he struggles with reading and writing.

I've been working with him this school year now that he's in grade 3. I see a bright boy who is willing to try anything I suggest. We've been focusing on Orton-Gillingham yet, hoping to hammer those skills in more and more. Last year, his retention of new information had about a 50% carry-over to regular seat work. This year, it's about 70%.

But while the rest of his class has moved on at grade level, many of them reading books at the 3-3.5 level, he is beginning to realize that his books at 1.8 level are "too easy" for the others. He's becoming less brave in reading out loud in class or volunteering information.

I think this is the year that he's either going to start feeling successful or start shutting down and turn into an attitude case. I believe that's also the reason he was so keen to try a new program like Dynaread, because he wants to keep up.

ELAINE: I understand where you're coming from but I've just had so many students who've had severe reading problems but have never shut down or had attitude problems. It's just essential that they, and we, find and emphasize other things that they're good at. For some kids it's the arts, or sports and for some its things we wouldn't normally think of ... like class pets, other games or just the fact that they have a good friend and/or the ability to make a lot of friends or become a leader ... so many possibilities and all it takes is one.

Please talk to the teacher about the reading out loud. Is it being done in larger groups? If so ..., no go. Reading pairs ... ok. Triads ... ok. Many more ... not so much.

HANS: Though I fully agree with the power of identifying and help internalizing one (or more) skills that Eric may excel in, researched statistics overwhelmingly evidence the grave risks of emotional shut down. Part of the solution is what Elaine shared, but part of it is also helping Eric understand that Dyslexia is not a curse, not something to be ashamed of, and something that actually comes with many benefits (if managed well, by him and those who raise him, and educate him). It may be a very good idea for his parents to buy the following book, and read it together with Eric. Not instead of identifying and endorsing his unique talent area(s), but alongside it.

The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain by Brock L. Eide M.D. M.A. Permalink: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0452297923

His teacher is very aware of his strengths and limitations and teaches to them. But all the interventions now lie on my plate, and I'm hoping to help him achieve some more success. Since all our students bus in (he's on the bus about 40 minutes), before/after school programs are not an option. Generally, we focus on math and reading/writing as crucial life skills, and if needed we minimize the time spent on social/science to help them keep up with math and reading. We try not take them out of music and art, because there's lots of research to suggest that those subjects also help out academically.

ELAINE: 40 minutes on a bus is really unfortunate ... I guess it has to be social time, a good time for kid books on tape or music, learning apps or, if it isn't embarrassing, easier books that he can read alone or with a friend.

HANS: Public libraries often have offerings of audio books in their collection. I myself use Audible.com by Amazon, which offers a high quality audio experience. Some people demonstrate the ability to listen with comprehension at faster rates, and Audible.com allows this. They offer a three month trial subscription for little money. It may be a way for him to progress in academics and overall development, through listening on the bus.

ELAINE: I totally agree with the effort to keep music and art ... unless he hates them. Personally, I don't think there's much extra benefit if the child isn't interested. On the other hand, how about something physical? Sport or building/making things? Would he be interested? It's just as beneficial ... or more so.

HANS: I am also familiar with the research on the benefits of music and art to overall academic development. We are not linear-thinking creatures. Music and arts help us to broaden our perspectives. And with a current lack of reading skills, this may help compensate. And if he happens to be good at it, will also boost his sense of self-worth.

He would not be retained any more in elementary, regardless of what grade level he achieves this year or in years to come.

ELAINE: I'm really curious about why this is the case. Is there room for negotiation here?

ELAINE adds...: Regarding repeating more than one school year in elementary school, do check in with the Ministry of Education to see if such a rule can actually be imposed by a school. I don't know the rules here but I do know that, in Ontario, this would rule would never stand.

HANS: When I read that statement, I concluded that you were primarily stating it as a fact. But fact or not, retention in a Grade when peers move on is very tough on a child, especially if the child -- like Eric -- seems very very eager to stay at par with his friends.

Rather than retaining, my preference would go out to assistive technologies, like Text to Speech and Audio Books, plus selecting an academic path for him which suits his talents and abilities. But... most certainly continuing to help him to Learn to Read, with Dynaread and possible continued augmentation of OG Phonics. I categorically do not see assistive technologies as replacement for learning to read. AT's are merely a means, and most certainly not an end. You may want to watch this video (possibly even together with Eric), in which I talk about the role of AT and the balances in handling Dyslexia: http://youtu.be/0wOLl3ZRcw4

YOUR TOP THREE OF WHAT YOU HOPE TO RECEIVE FROM OUR TEAM

1. how to boost his reading performance.

ELAINE shares... I would recommend the following to help boost Eric's reading performance.

(1) Dynaread. It is really quite obvious that Eric needs to increase his sight word reading vocabulary and improve his reading speed for the words that he knows. Dynaread will help him to do this as well or better than other programs. Truthfully, no bias. Full stop.

(2) Make sure that Eric is getting the kind of Orton-Gillingham program that he needs. In my experience, OG fails when children are taught phonic information but are not given enough opportunity to use it i.e. to recode (read and spell) a good number and a wide variety of words with target phonemes in the initial, final and middle positions. (in that order if you can). Application is a skill that has to be taught explicitly (for accuracy) and drilled (for speed) with individual words, phrases, sentences and short paragraphs. Systematic, explicit phonics instruction has to go hand in hand with systematic, explicit 'application instruction'.

(3) It would be excellent if Dynaread words could be included among the words used to teach application. Doing this would, effectively, cement and 'back up' already acquired sight words and make application easier at the same time.

(4) This is going to sound obvious but ... find something that he really wants to read. Try out everything. Let him choose and let him stay with what he loves for as long as he wants. Fiction, non-fiction, many authors, many topics, many formats, graphic/cartoons, colorful characters ... anything and, if he wants to read something that is too hard, simplify sections of it and, together, do it anyway. I can't do enough to stress how important this is. It's not rocket science but it can make all the difference in the world. When they find the right things, they just take off and you wonder what on earth just happened.

ELAINE adds... : Teachers/tutors can 'level' a text by summarizing, paraphrasing and shortening it ... with simpler words that they can definitely use with the child. It's effortful on the part of a tutor. They have to be good at paraphrasing and summarizing ... but it is a pretty common and effective technique. The child still reads and learns the content that interested him but he isn't asked to read beyond his own level.

The analogy between physical and reading disabilities isn't always appropriate. I have one severely dyslexic child who wanted to run. He was only interested in, and would only try to read, books about animals. The books he wanted were way above his level but, initially, at least, he only wanted the pictures and the facts ... so we/I ended up cherry picking facts from quite difficult books. We used the pictures and captions to learn the facts together. Initially, I did almost all of the reading but then we would pull out the simpler words to work on and learn together. The level of learning kept him motivated but the level of reading instruction stayed very low. I credit this technique, however, for his remarkable improvements. He is extremely motivated to increase his knowledge on his own, read those hard 'fact' words and those books on his own and he is now (9 months later) reading vocabulary that is way above his grade level. Easy texts just always bored and de-motivated him. Now he's excited. (the principles of CLAD clear language and design can be of great assistance here ex. line breaking).

I think the main thing, is to remember that the child is not expected to do these things on their own. It's about essential teacher/student 'scaffolding'; a gradual shift/transfer of responsibility and skill from teacher to student.

HANS: Personally, I would like to add a little balance here as well. We all know the paradigm from which she is reasoning: Inner drive and motivation can do so much more than any 'external' force. Though this may be true, it never brought my friend Matthijs with his quadriplegic condition to walking. Eric did not demonstrate mild dyslexia (rather: severe dyslexia). The risk of toying with reading materials whilst not really being able to read is that they contextually guess their way through the text. In that process, the orthography of one word gets coupled with the semantics and pronunciation of another, which effectively results in polluting their reading system with inaccurate information. If a child is making progress and starts to be able to read, then I can follow Elaine's argument, but personally -- based on Eric's demonstrated abilities in his Dyslexia Test -- I would judge this too early.

ELAINE continues...

(5) Separate reading and reading comprehension as much as possible. Concentrate on one of these at a time. Unless a child is extremely motivated and willing to do a lot of start-stop-recap and rerun ... try to do word decoding before or after you've read the text. Learn problematic words in advance ... read them for the student as you go along ... or read them with the student if you can do it fluently together. Motivation goes asunder when decoding effort is painful.

2. HOW TO HELP HIM SUCCEED WITH INCREASINGLY COMPLEX READING MATERIALS AS WE PREPARE HIM FOR END-OF-YEAR GOVERNMENT PROVINCIAL ACHIEVEMENT TESTING AND BEYOND

ELAINE shares...

With increasingly complex reading materials ... remember that there are two kinds of texts; ones that a child can read on their own and those that they can only attempt with help. You have to use both. Learning comes from 'the new' while mastery and pride comes with the independent practice. So, it's ok if they want to read easier texts if, together, you are also reading things that are more difficult. Harder things move into the 'easy' category and we leap frog along in that fashion.

Also, don't forget that reading depends on basic language and listening skills. And reading is not the only way to improve and expand them. The richer the child's language, knowledge and story-telling environment the better.

HANS: This point of Elaine I cannot stress enough. There is significant research demonstrating that children who have been read to lots when young, and who grow up in a verbally rich environment enjoy a language development advantage. As shared earlier, reading is merely a stage in overall language development. But it is crucially important to recognize two things here:

1. Initial reading merely couples the orthography of words to the already present verbal vocabulary of the child. This is where the rich verbal environment and the being-read-to comes in as an advantage. Audio books, likewise, can help here as well.

2. ... and the following is something I would like to do more structured research in one day... When you study the works of Chomsky and other linguists, you come to realize the role of reading in our ability to grow intellectually as well. We can only 'merge' ideas and concepts if we know them. We cannot combine e.g. flour, salt, and water to come up with bread if we have never heard of flour. Reading plays a significant role in expanding our overall know-how and understanding, resulting in enriching our access to individual ideas and concepts, which we can subsequently 'merge' into original new thinking and ideas. This point is obviously a bit out of Eric's direct-needs context, but it does argue for two things: (a) It is of great value to him, if we succeed in becoming a functional reader, and (b) exposure to audio books and other non-reading materials can help make up for what he misses out in reading. And my preference would go out to audio-books over e.g. videos, because books cover subjects in so much more detail and a video.

ELAINE continues... I really wouldn't worry, at all, about preparing Eric for the PAT test (or any other standardized test until he reaches the final years of high school). Teachers are often encouraged to 'teach to the test' for these events but, especially in Eric's case, this would be counterproductive. These tests are more about evaluating schools and school systems than they are about testing individuals. Eric will, of course, have to take the test with everyone else but it won't yield any specific knowledge that will be of much use to you. Keep him on his usual program.

HANS: I could not agree more with Elaine. If at all possible and/or permissible, I would not have him involved. At this point in Eric's life it would be the equivalent of asking Matthijs to participate in the Athletics test on running a quarter mile. It only pains him, and does not yield any advantage for Eric.

3. HOW TO OPTIMIZE OUTCOME AND POTENTIAL FOR A STUDENT LIKE ERIC, EVEN UTILIZING ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IF NEEDED

Get him onto Dynaread and ensure that his Orton-Gillingham program is systematic and explicit and stresses phonics application in spelling as well as reading. Do and try anything and everything to (1) find material that really motivates him (even if it wouldn't be your choice for him) and (2) other activities and friends that make his life meaningful and fun at school and at home. More than this? I don't think you can do too much more than this. Don't forget to appreciate, congratulate and reward yourself for all of your efforts. Eric is lucky to have you.

HANS: Building on what Elaine closed her paragraph with, your school displays remarkable commitment and ability. Keep it up!

Regarding assistive technologies, well that's a thorny issue. When should we start using them? I recommend that you keep them on a backburner for a while. Voice recognition programs are becoming more and more popular but there is still room for them to improve. There are pens and other scanners that will read text aloud for you; tools that I'd suggest to any adolescent or adult. And one can ask for extra time for tests and assignments that are graded; something that's really important as soon as poor reading skills begin to mask displays of subject knowledge and other practical skill development. These are all good tools but, I have a lot of experience teaching adults as well as children so I'm acutely aware of the fact that the early years are the best learning years. Unfortunately, it rarely gets easier than it is now. It would be a terrible thing to miss any of the potential of these years by moving into adaptive technologies too quickly.

HANS: I point back to my video again. I do believe there is good use for AT, though, but... NEVER at the expense of full throttle efforts to help Eric learn to read. These AT are often rolled out as RT's (my coined term: Replacement Technologies). AT's should remain assistive and never replace the effort to learn to read.

Lastly, allow me to refer you to a white paper by the International Dyslexia Association, on Accomodating Students with Dyslexia in All Classroom Settings. https://www.dynaread.com/accommodating-students-with-dyslexia

End of Case Study

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Rethinking how dyslexia is diagnosed

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<iframe width="100%" height="124" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://player.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/05/07/diagnose-dyslexia-americans-parents"></iframe>

• Jonathan Chang
• Meghna Chakrabarti

Dyslexia affects one in every 5 Americans.

But only 2 million are diagnosed and receive the help they need. Why?

Today, On Point: Rethinking how dyslexia is diagnosed.

Tim Odegard, professor of psychology and chairholder of the Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. Host of the Dyslexia Uncovered podcast.

Clarice Jackson, founder of Black Literacy Matters . Founder of Voice Advocacy Center, a dyslexia screening and tutoring center. Founder of Decoding Dyslexia Nebraska, a nationwide parent support group created to raise awareness about dyslexia.

This is On Point. I'm Meghna Chakrabarti. We're joined today by Tim Odegard. He's professor of psychology and chairholder of the Murphy Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. He's also host of the podcast Dyslexia Uncovered. Professor Odegard, welcome to On Point.

TIM ODEGARD: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

CHAKRABARTI: I would love it if you could take us back into your own childhood as a start. When you were in second or third grade and you were in school, and you had sitting at your desk, with a book or an assignment in front of you, professor Odegard. Can you describe to us exactly you know what you saw as you tried to read?

ODEGARD: That's a great question. I saw a page full of words. Words that I knew that most of them, if I couldn't recognize them by sight from memorization, I probably wouldn't be able to read and pronounce. And I always worried in dread with this nauseous feeling that a teacher or a classmate or somebody would call on me and ask me to read those pages, read in front of them.

CHAKRABARTI: So when you say that it wasn't a word that you could recognize by sight, so if you saw the word school and you had already known, memorized what that whole word was you were okay.

ODEGARD: Correct. That's my compensation, is I've memorized and crammed a bunch of words that I've memorized over my life into my head.

CHAKRABARTI: Okay. I don't mean to pry, but I think for many people who have, who do not have dyslexia or any kind of word processing challenges, it's hard to understand how when you see the word, for example, university, and it's not one that you had already memorized. For a lot of people, they would just look at the uni.

And be like, okay, uni-ver-sity, they would be able to work it out. But what did you see or what prevented you from being able to break it down like that?

ODEGARD: The child me.

CHAKRABARTI: Yeah. The child Tim.

ODEGARD: Wasn't clear on what was going on, why I was struggling to do it. What I would try to do is match it to a image in my head of a word that looked like that.

That I did know. And so I would call out and try to name a word that I might have known. So I might've said universe. If I knew that from a science class, that I had been able to memorize what the word universe was, I probably wouldn't have said university, but it would have been something like that. I might've even seen in a book and learned the word unicycle.

And I might've said unicycle. I didn't see the words backwards. I didn't see the letters backwards. It didn't jumble up for me. It was that it was difficult for me to sound them out as you were trying to do, to pronounce them from the letters and the sounds that went with them.

CHAKRABARTI: And tell me more about the dread that produced in young Tim.

ODEGARD: Two levels of dread. Typically, if you were given that seat work, it meant that you were supposed to be reading. Read on your own, and then you would have to go up and answer questions. There's a sense of dread that I would be found out and be thought of as not knowing what was in the book, because I couldn't access it.

I couldn't read it. So I would stumble through the words in my head. I would do better if I could have tried to have sounded them out laboriously, but of course the shame that I felt, and being in a room full of other people, I didn't want to out myself in front of them. So I wouldn't have been trying to read out loud.

At most, I might've tried to mumble under my breath. So the idea that I would have to go up and answer questions that a teacher had, or the whole class is now going to have to raise their hands and they're going to have to share what they read in the book. And of course, I would not be able to contribute, and I would be thought of as not knowing what my classmates knew.

CHAKRABARTI: I understand though that your memorization compensation, if I could call it that, and the effort that you put into it, actually worked really well for a while. There's an article where the reporter says that your teacher had moved you into the position of first reader.

ODEGARD: Yeah, that's exactly right.

So back when I was in school, it was very common for us to get these readers and we would have to read these books and we might do it in a small group of maybe five, six, seven, eight kids. And we'd be in a row and the person in the first year would read. And these are highly predictable so that the same words are going to repeat over and over again.

So by the time they got to me in the sixth, seventh, eighth position, I had seen all those words. I had used my, what we would call short term memory to memorize those, to be able to see them on the page and then call out what I had heard the other kids reading. So it looked as if I was very good at reading, and I kept getting bumped up, because I was so good and I wouldn't miss any of the words to being good at reading.

The fourth, the third, the second, and then the first. And of course, when I was in the first position, there was nobody else there to actually sound those words out for me, to read them for me, so I could memorize them. Of course, I was found out and then that resulted in me having to go and do some reading for the teachers.

They found out that I really wasn't able to read those words and I was no longer in that group. In fact, I found myself in a much different group with much different types of children than the ones that had been in there before. And reading the best I could.

CHAKRABARTI: Were you ever screened? When it became apparent later on that you were struggling?

ODEGARD: So I was doing all of this in the early '80s, and the concept of screening for literacy, which is so widespread and now part of legislation all over this country, as well as in Providences and Canada, was not possible.

Was not an option, did not exist. So the idea that I would have been screened in some kind of a screening format early in my grade would have not happened at that point. So I was tested, and they found me to not be able to read, to not be able to spell words, but as also reported in that article that you were referencing, I didn't qualify for any special services or protections under federal law, because of the identification model that I heard Sarah Carr in the top of the hour referring to the IQ discrepancy model.

CHAKRABARTI: So that's why we are so thrilled that you're on the show today. And I have a note here that says you prefer to go by Tim and not Professor Odegard, so I'll try to honor that. Because the question of how children are identified as having dyslexia and therefore eligible for supports is a really important one to this day. By the way, the article I'm referencing is from Scientific American. It was written by Sarah Carr. We have a link to that at onpointradio.org. But I do want to, so this evaluation, I don't know what to call it, test that you were given as a young boy.

Tell me a little bit more about that. What is actually tested, or was?

ODEGARD: It would have tested and would have been fairly rudimentary relative to what we have today, but still sufficient and still could have got the job done. It would have been having me read isolated words to see how well I could read different types of words.

So short words that are highly predictable, that you could use the letters and the sounds that go with them to read, probably a few short words that wouldn't quite fit those patterns. And then at that time, probably a few longer, more complex words that probably had more than one syllable in them. It's probably what they had me do.

They may or may not have had me do a spelling test. It was pretty apparent from my classroom performance that I couldn't spell, that was my weakest subject. For those of us in my community, those of us with dyslexia, that is often what we share in community, as being one of our largest struggles. So many of us are dismayed that we still call it a reading disability, for example, since we struggle to both read and spell words.

So we have aspects with multiple parts of written language, and they would have also probably given me, I know they gave me what would have been an IQ test at the time, that would have had a verbal component where I would have had to know what words meant. I would have had to have done other aspects to show that I understand spoken language and the meaning behind it. And I can understand it as well as express myself a little bit, and then they would have also had me do some, probably some what would have looked like visual games to me, maybe patterns with blocks, trying to build those out.

And they would have been determined if my full scale. So all that stuff coming together, was equivalent to likely higher than just 100 and high enough to get me a discrepancy of likely, at the time, about 15 points, one standard deviation between my reading achievement and my IQ. And because of the nature of that test and my background being from a blue-collar working-class background, didn't have college educated parents at home, definitely at that time they were biased against people from my community, my working-class background community.

CHAKRABARTI: In my mind, I'm hearing the sound of car brakes screeching to bring this conversation to a halt. Because you said that IQ was part of the evaluation, and this is the discrepancy model. This is what we're trying to learn about here. And is the discrepancy that, well, if a child's IQ is below a cutoff level or whatnot and they're a struggling reader, that to put it bluntly, this is what you quoted in the Scientific American article, that child is quote, too stupid to be dyslexic.

ODEGARD: Yeah, that would be one way of saying it. Yes. There's a lot of history and baggage that comes along with how this concept, especially in the United States, came to be. And a lot of language that we would deem pretty nonacceptable in today's way of thinking about the world wouldn't even be used, like mental retarded.

The term was educable, those who could be educated, versus those who were uneducable, mentally retarded children. So if my IQ had been higher, I would have been labeled as an educable, somebody who could learn, could be educated to do these things that I was struggling with. Mentally retarded individual, but I didn't have a high enough IQ.

So I guess that meant that I wasn't worth the trouble.

CHAKRABARTI: So the thinking, the historical thinking in this discrepancy model isn't so much that any child is having trouble or struggling as a reader, full stop, right? Which is what ideally it should be. It was, oh, they may be struggling as a reader, but we have to compare that to their measured IQ.

ODEGARD: Correct.

CHAKRABARTI: Tim, before we get back to learning in detail, what this discrepancy model is, you will not be surprised to hear that when we told our listeners that we were going to be talking about this today, we got a real flood of responses. Because this is something that's having an impact in every state in the country.

So here's just a couple of listeners who shared their stories.

This is Xandra Sharpe in Greenbrier, Arkansas, and she said she ultimately had to move her son to a private school to get him the help he needed.

XANDRA SHARPE It was very frustrating because he was getting so much support at home to help him make better grades.

But because he wasn't failing, they would not test him. So I finally threw a fit. They finally tested him in eighth grade and they said, Oh yeah, he does have the markers of dyslexia and a processing disorder. And then COVID hit and we couldn't get further testing. So I ended up putting him in a private school that had a reading tutor and a dyslexia specialist.

And it was a game changer. I don't think that he would have gotten the support and resources he needed in a public school.

CHAKRABARTI: So that's Xandra from Greenbrier, Arkansas. And here's Alison Maree in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, telling us about her daughter.

ALISON: When she was tested, we were told that she wasn't behind enough so that she couldn't get on an IEP.

They needed her to fail more. I got an outside diagnosis and battled the system for almost a year before she got the intervention she needed. She graduates next weekend with an English degree from UMass Amherst. Without this intervention at that early age, I don't believe any of this would have been possible for her.

CHAKRABARTI: Just two of our many listeners, which we'll hear more from throughout this hour. So Tim, those are more modern stories, but they have echoes to what you were talking about. So let's go back to this discrepancy model that involved both reading ability and IQ. When was it created and why?

ODEGARD: I would say it was probably introduced in the late 1960s, early 1970s.

It was created because the illusions that you heard in those self-testimonials from listeners is really trying to find some kind of a processed efforts, some kind of a reason, causal mechanism why. We presume that it is neurobiological. It's born into how our brains are born and they develop. And that's what kind of the definition in our federal law, IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities and Education Act codified. Was that it was something that was part of our psyche, part of our constitution. There is no genetic test. There is no brain test. There is no way of getting at that. As a result, when they were trying to codify and then implement this idea that was put into legislation, they had to come up with some model to do it.

So they're like if they had the potential, and so they were using this IQ as a marker of potential. Their overall potential is far greater than what we see them doing. And as a result, we could then invest in these children, knowing that they have the potential to learn, because they seem to have these isolated deficits, let's say in reading, maybe a little bit in writing, and they have these processing and advantages that we can see with this IQ test.

So we'll label them as special, as having these special needs and the special label of a specific learning disability. So it was really born out of necessity to try to operationalize something that was not theoretical, but was not something that we could put into practice. And we still can't today, despite all the efforts of all the brain imaging and all the genetic work that's happened around this.

CHAKRABARTI: Tim, I'm having a very hard time keeping my mouth shut, right? Because the idea that potential is the way to determine who's deserving of of intervention or support is shocking. Was there ever a time, whether it was in the development of the discrepancy model, or perhaps even soon thereafter, that people started thinking, hang on, maybe the fact that these children are struggling to read might actually have an impact in a lot of other things, including how they test in the so called IQ tests.

ODEGARD: So yeah, the early 1980s, Linda Siegel. Keith Stanovich, Jack Fletcher, Reid Lyon, and others started to publish research that was highlighting that the utility, the usefulness of the IQ test in differentiating between these people with greater potential versus what was then labeled a garden variety struggling breeder, just didn't meet any kind of criteria that would be used in any modern day classification and identification system.

So it wasn't passing what we would expect and hold in a medical model kind of a framework. It just wasn't passing muster. The other thing that was starting to emerge also was that we presumed in the United States when we were developing intelligence tests for lots of purposes, that this was the trait.

This was dispositional. This is how you were born. This is what you were going to do. And it would predict your ability and how high you could fly. But we've since learned that there are one, our biases, but more importantly, it changes over time. I know that you probably want to jump in here, but there's one really remarkable study that was published recently in a Northern European country, where they tracked individuals like myself who were identified and they had their IQ test when they were children.

Those who got the reading intervention, maintained that IQ 15 years later, but the kids who didn't get reading intervention had almost a full 15-point drop in their IQ on average. So if they had used a discrepancy model initially, as adults, they wouldn't have even met it, because IQ is not permanent. It is something malleable that changes.

CHAKRABARTI: But we're talking about this discrepancy model that's been around in some form for almost 50 years now. It has, as far as I understand, Tim, it's fallen out of favor a little bit, but are versions of it still in use in schools or elsewhere when people seek to get their children screened or tested?

ODEGARD: Yeah, most definitely. And I think that both of the cases that you heard with the callers who called in likely were forced because of the quality of education and the expectations. And how they were being handled in the schools wasn't meeting their needs. So they went to an outside tester who likely used a pattern of strengths and weaknesses.

So giving a, not a pure IQ test, but measuring very similar types of tests and then laying those out and looking to find patterns. And what they're looking for and what those callers were alluding to was finding these patterns where you could find these causal mechanisms or presumed causal mechanisms that were likely causing the reading problems.

ODEGARD: And as a result, they were able to come back to the schools, and then leverage those to get services. And the challenge we have is that as the IQ discrepancy has fallen out of favor, as the patterns of strength and weaknesses fall out of favor, the most important thing in our schools right now is quality education for all children. So that we actually can do our best and informing educators and refining how we screen to make sure that we're always able to dig down at the word level and we know to do it.

CHAKRABARTI: Okay, but to be clear about something, and it wasn't actually fully clear to me from the Scientific American article, is that even though we say this discrepancy model has fallen out of favor, the article says that thousands of schools in the U.S. continue to use an iteration of this model to test children.

Can you explain that?

ODEGARD: There's two aspects to that. So the federal legislation, IDEA, still has permissible three modes of identification. An IQ discrepancy is still allowable by federal law and can be adopted by any state or school in the nation if they chose to do, so it's still allowable. Second, the patterns of strength and weaknesses, giving a cognitive battery of tests and looking to see what the relative strengths and weaknesses are, to find a potential profile that would mark a child as having an SLD is now what a lot of schools are using in place of an IQ discrepancy, but it's still leveraging the exact same test and subtest, to large part as what an IQ does.

And now they're trying to get very complex and find these specific patterns that they think are linked to some type of a specific learning disability. The third is a instructional discrepancy. You're in a good school. They're using best practices. Most of the children are responding really well and are at grade level.

And when you're screening, they're reading lots of words, accurate. They're pretty fluent in what they do with them. They're spelling words well. There's just a handful that are left now that are struggling, and as a result of their persistent struggles, even when a little bit of intervention is used, you can identify them as needing much greater, more intensive, sustained intervention.

CHAKRABARTI: Okay. In that case, how much has changed? The discrepancy model and its various iterations that you just laid out that are still in use. How much has that shaped, at the federal level? Or take it down as far as you want, state, local. Who's getting help?

ODEGARD: I think the sad thing is that I don't think the numbers have changed about who's getting help and who's not.

We've got some state laws in place now that actually require states to report how many kids and what percentage of kids are being identified with dyslexia. I've published several studies on this, and we're not seeing large swatches of children in Texas, Arkansas, such as that one caller from Greenbrier was reporting, or in Tennessee, for example, where I live currently, we're not seeing large swatches of children being mislabeled with dyslexia or even being labeled with dyslexia. At least when I published my first study on this, the most common number of children in a Texas high school that were identified with dyslexia was zero.

CHAKRABARTI: Zero, even though on average, 20% of the U.S. population has dyslexia.

ODEGARD: Zero. And it wasn't much different than that in Tennessee when I looked anecdotally at their publicly reported data. So you can see that we have this issue. In Arkansas, there's a steep drop off as well when you get to middle and then high school.

And that's what we observed across Arkansas middle schools, Arkansas and Tennessee, was that in middle school you see a steep drop off. It's perceived, and the stereotype is that it's a condition that we find early. That with good intervention and the foundational skills we remediate and that they're all fixed and better.

But I think as the one caller from Cape Cod was probably alluding to, if you're compensating, if you're working really hard as I did, as that caller's daughter probably is through your efforts, the harder we work, the less likely we are to get any federal protections, anything to support us in our unique needs.

And it creates what we commonly call a double bind. So you want to advocate against, let's say, an IQ discrepancy. I want to advocate against the cognitive model of doing this. But when we have schools that aren't well calibrated and aren't honoring the fact that if we struggle to read and spell words, it's on them to educate us.

And it's on them to find us and provide us with the supports and document the accommodations that we deserve.

CHAKRABARTI: Okay. Again, let's go back to listen to some of the folks who shared their stories with us. This is Patty in Syracuse, New York. And she knew that her third-grade son struggles with reading.

She's known that since kindergarten, but getting the school's help was very challenging.

PATTY: They keep telling me that they don't test for dyslexia at the school level, yet when I talked to someone at the local university who could test him, she thought it was weird that the school psychologist couldn't test him because she, herself, is a school psychologist and can test him.

When I went to the school with that, they said, oh, yeah, now we can test him. We can test him. We'll just have to do it over the summer because we're short staffed. It feels with dyslexia, it's hard. You have to know the secret word, or the password, to be able to get what your child needs.

CHAKRABARTI: So that's Patty in Syracuse, New York, and here's Gina Nelson in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota.

GINA NELSON: It cost us several thousand dollars out of pocket to not only have our daughter diagnosed, but also to provide her the tutoring that she needed in her grade school years. Unfortunately, the schools do not have what they need to teach children with dyslexia, and it is very difficult on the children, and they end up growing up with a lot of anxiety because they are not understood, and they struggle in school.

CHAKRABARTI: I'd like to bring Clarice Jackson into the conversation now. She joins us from Omaha, Nebraska. She's founder of Black Literacy Matters, also founder of Voice Advocacy Center. It's a dyslexia screening and tutoring center. Clarice Jackson, welcome to On Point.

CLARICE JACKSON: Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Hello, everyone.

CHAKRABARTI: You heard Tim say earlier that the testing that he underwent as a young child in the early '80s was really tilted against helping someone from his background, working class, blue collar, not a lot of college education history in his family. So those class differences really have had an impact, as has race in terms of identifying students in need.

So can you talk a little bit about that? Like how has differential interventions or, excuse me, the discrepancy model, how has it had an impact on young Black children who were of whom who are struggling readers.

JACKSON: I would just first say that I think Tim and a lot of Black children or children of color have that same experience.

I know personally that my daughter who has dyslexia, she went through that very exact thing with the discrepancy model. That's what they were using here in Nebraska. And at that particular time, she had a psychologist of color. And because the psychologists of color understood the discrepancy model and the bias and the non-cultural diversity that can be used within that to work against children of color, she was very protective of the students that she attested.

And I kept wondering how my daughter was able to pass the test that said that she did not need assistance, but yet she couldn't read simple two and three letter words. And that's when I found out what the real issue was with the psychologist, but that IQ model is very problematic, for not only social classes, but also racial diversity as well.

CHAKRABARTI: Because IQ models of all sorts have been found to basically, in some cases, be overtly racist, in other cases be founded in the kinds of testing which would just intrinsically disadvantage some groups, including children of color, right?

JACKSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that it lacks a lot of the language variations and the diversities that are included in them. And so it doesn't account for any of that. And that puts the child of color at a disadvantage, even though they may really truly be struggling from dyslexia. But that compounded bias that you find interwoven in the discrepancy model is not helpful in access and identification.

CHAKRABARTI: Can you so help me understand something a little bit more, Clarice. You had said that the psychologist who was working with your daughter was very protective of the children she was working with. That sounds like that's coming from a very good place though, right? I'm a little confused. Was her need, desire to protect those children not leading to the results that it should have?

JACKSON: I'm glad you caught that, but sorry.

CHAKRABARTI: It's okay.

JACKSON: I would say because at that particular time, my story is a little unique. So I happen to work at that particular school. So I knew the psychologist prior to her screening and testing my daughter. However, in her quest to think she was doing right by the kids of color, because she wanted, didn't want kids over identified. Because there's a disproportionate amount of African American students who are misidentified or over identified in special education.

So that was her lens. That was her baseline. And she had developed like personal relationships with these kids. And so she didn't want her to be labeled, but in the process of that, she was harming her.

CHAKRABARTI: So I want to learn from both of you about what are the better models out there that need to be used? And are they being used enough, Tim? How would you begin to answer that?

ODEGARD: I would actually say that the better models, if you were to say, is the instructional discrepancy, this response to instruction, is being used far more.

What we don't have is why Clarice struggled with her daughter, why a lot of your callers struggled, which is, that's supposed to be based on best practices and then having good intervention. And we don't really have those in the schools, which is why people from our communities have to go outside of the school in the first place.

And so we don't have the systems and the instructional knowledge and know how in place to run a better model. But when parents spend thousands of dollars to go outside of the school, then to come back, they find that they've got the diagnosis now, they've got the school agreeing, but their kids still aren't getting what they need.

So what this really says is that we need a ground up rebuild on how we're perceiving and working within our schools. At least that's my perspective.

CHAKRABARTI: So Clarice, actually I want to hear more about your daughter and then also the work that you're doing in Black Literacy Matters. Because this definitely seems like an issue that isn't going to be solved in one fell swoop at the federal level.

It's going to take a lot of the kind of work that you and Tim are doing. So tell us a little bit more about, about your daughter and how she's doing now.

JACKSON: Sure. Oh I'll start with how she started. And then she of course could not read in the fourth grade. She was still reading below a pre kindergarten level.

And she'd been in the traditional public school setting from pre-k to fourth grade. And again, we had that issue with the psychologist who didn't want her to be labeled or disproportionately placed in special education and therefore relegated to it and stuck. So we had to push past all of that, and they still could not objectively, scientifically, they didn't have a highly qualified teacher who even understood the science of reading to assist my daughter.

Like most of the callers, I had to look outside of the traditional school system, placed her in a private school where they used a Orton-Gillingham method, and in one year she went from a nonreader to a third-grade reader. And that was such a profound place for me after struggling and fighting and crying and homework at home that took hours, and she still didn't complete it.

And her belief in herself, I watched her belief in herself diminish. And I see that with tons of children who come through the doors of my center, or through parents or other advocates have expressed. That social and emotional impact, the educational trauma that children experience. Changes the trajectory of their lives if we do not catch it.

And that is so important to talk about, because you don't ever have to say a word to your child. If they know, which they do, that they're struggling or reading is not something they're good at, their belief in themselves diminishes, they withdraw within themselves. So you have very presumably introverted children who are truly extroverted, but are suppressing due to the fact that they have not been equipped with structured literacy practices.

CHAKRABARTI: This is so important, right? Because it does have an impact on absolutely every aspect of a child's life. I can completely understand what you say when they turn in on themselves, right? The idea of loving learning just diminishes. It affects them socially. With all of these truths, all of these truths being known, from your perspective, Clarice, what do you think is, what are the hurdles preventing schools from adopting different models or doing a better job at identifying the kids who need help?

JACKSON: After being in this work for a long time, and I think Tim could probably attest to this as well. A lot of it is schools pick curriculums.

Five to seven years out. And so once they pick these curriculums, by the way, a lot of these things are picked, like I know here where I am locally, they create curriculum groups, and we don't know what level of training or experience these groups that are picked have when it comes to choosing the particular types of books that will be placed in the classroom.

All that's decided above the level of the grassroots where the teacher and the child are and what's needed in the classroom. And so those things are decided. Then it becomes a political argument about, okay, if we do switch, how do we pay for it? How do we train a mass of teachers who've already been in the classroom from grade one, all the way up to 30 and 40 years, who don't have this type of training, and then it becomes that excuse.

And so while these things are arguing with each other, the lack of providing appropriate curriculum, not allowing curriculum like Lucy Calkins and Balanced Literacy, Pinnell and all of those different things. Into our school systems and let's have some knowledge about what we're choosing and does it have the evidence to back it to fully create literate children.

That's one of the huge issues and then for people of color it's then overcoming the barriers that are already there. I don't want my kid labeled as needing special services. I understand that there is bias in that. I also understand that our kids are not picked out to be gifted or talented or any of those things.

And I don't have the access. I don't have the reach, the bandwidth to work two, three jobs, then come up to the school and work in a PTA and be all things that the school says I need to be. And how about I come from the same system that failed my child, which has now put me in poverty. At the low-income level, to where I have to work all these jobs.

So now you want me to come home after working two to three jobs and read to my child and I can't even read. Those are some of the barriers that people of color face.

CHAKRABARTI: Yeah. You are singing my song, Clarice. (LAUGHS) If I could just put it that way, and I will restrain myself from diverting this conversation into the balanced literacy wars, because you mentioned Kalkins and F&P.

JACKSON: I'm sorry.

CHAKRABARTI: No, but that's part of the picture, right? Because these are decisions that districts have to make, right? It's the combination of identifying children who need help, but also talking about what schools are doing inside the classroom that may be making it harder for kids.

So I totally take your point on that. But Tim, so let me turn back to you here, because I just need a little bit more clarification. Because curriculum is a big part of this, but getting back to the evaluations, I just want to be sure I heard you correctly, that you said that a lot of schools are still using, if not of the old model, they're using evaluations that still look for patterns of strengths and weaknesses.

I think you've previously called it discrepancy 2.0.

ODEGARD: I did. Because I was being cheeky when I said that. So it's a way of thinking about it as being analogous in many ways, since very similar processing measures are used in this newer approach of patterns of strengths and weaknesses. So you're borrowing a lot and you're borrowing heavily from an IQ type assessment battery.

CHAKRABARTI: Okay. So here's, let's get down to issues of dollars and cents, right? Because there just aren't unlimited funds for education anywhere, unfortunately, if you ask me. So ultimately there has to be some way to identify who is in need of help. Clarice, you had mentioned another evaluation system?

I didn't catch the name. It started with an O.

JACKSON: Oh, Orton-Gillingham? Yeah. Is that what you're talking about?

CHAKRABARTI: Is that another test?

JACKSON: That's not another test. That's just an approach or method that is used to teach children who are dyslexic how to read.

CHAKRABARTI: I see. Okay. Okay. So then thanks for that clarification because honestly in education, there's a lot of language that I have trouble keeping track of.

JACKSON: I'm so sorry.

CHAKRABARTI: No, it's quite all right. So Tim, what are the other ways that schools can somehow, I hate to say this, but identify who needs help and how schools can target the kind of support that those kids need. They need some kind of threshold, don't they?

ODEGARD: To build on one thing that you said, the dollars and cents, as well as the time, our treasure and then what Clarice said about the need for instruction and for the resources of dollars to do the work of actually teaching kids how to read in the first place, you could use an instructional model. Where we actually leverage and put money into the resources of teaching and equipping educators and giving students those resources to actually equip themselves with literacy.

That's what I would focus on. Research has looked at how much it cost. A midsize school district is anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000 are invested annually to do this type of testing that you keep referring to, across the nation. Now, a group then came back on that study that was published by a colleague of mine, Jeremy Miciak from University of Houston and said no. Actually it's closer to just a quarter of a million dollars. If you've got a handful of schools and you have a lot of the infrastructure you already need, which means you're already paying people.

You already have these very expensive tests, but they don't talk about the fact that these tests could take anywhere from eight to 10 hours of children's time away from an instruction. It's a lot of instruction and intervention a teacher could give to it, and you're taking resources of a paid position.

That could be a reading interventionist, it could be a person who is a coach and highly trained to support these people. By having and maintaining these models, we rob resources away from what we need for all of our students. Students who are low class like myself. From a poor background, students of colors, multilingual learners who are coming in.

Needing to be instructed and be identified with what they need and to build off their strengths. So we're robbing resources right now by maintaining this model, and we're putting the money into other people's hands.

CHAKRABARTI: Wait. So be clearer about that. So you're saying that there are already people in schools who, their work is in for different things, literacy coaches, things like that.

ODEGARD: They're there. But they're under resourced, they're under resourced. They don't have the resources to do it. When they need to adopt the new curriculum, when they need to pay for the sustained training, when they need to develop the in-house personnel to sustain full implementation of highly effective practices for all learners, and then have differentiated intervention to meet the needs of my child, of Clarice's child ... of other people's children. They don't have those resources. They don't have the capacity to do it, but they have the capacity to hire the people that they do for the testing. Because that's a compliance with the federal law. So they're doing a compliance mindset, which they have to do with the way the laws are structured.

And how they're held accountable.

CHAKRABARTI: I see. I see. Okay, so Clarice, this brings us back to the fact that, and I think it's reflected also in the callers who shared their stories with us and I'm grateful for all of them, but they're also coming from, a lot of the stories were for people who were able to go outside of the school system.

And find a way to get their child diagnosis and help, which means that they had the means to do it. Is that part of the problem that I've been reading, that that a lot of the more influential voices in the advocacy community come from that sort of white upper middle class group?

And that perhaps that's not the kind of advocacy that's reaching in districts that have a lot of children in need, but who can't advocate for themselves or families.

JACKSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. One thing is, and I know that there's some well-meaning people out here who quote this quite a bit, but if you come from a more prominent family, some might say, and I've heard it many times at many different conferences, that dyslexia is a gift.

And how do you tell someone who is in poverty, who is struggling, and we know, and we've heard that education is the gateway out of poverty, and you attend a school where access to appropriate reading intervention, structured literacy practices, are not there. And then your parents don't have the economic means to take you out of that school, put you in a private school or put you in a position where you have a tutor that tutors you 2 to 3 times a day.

And one of my good friends, Kareem Weaver says this, and I might be misquoting him a little bit, but basically, it's this. Is that you don't have a intervention problem. If more than half of your schools or your classrooms are struggling with literacy, you have an instructional problem. And so that is what has become the thing here in the United States, is that we are acting in the rears.

We are being reactive instead of proactive. And in the reaction, those that can't afford to find a different choice are stuck and relegated to these abysmal reading practices that we have, and thus we have the literacy gap between African American and their other racial counterparts.

CHAKRABARTI: We only have a minute left, and I really am mindful of all the families that are listening to this right now. Tim, what would you recommend that family members do if they have concerns about their children's reading.

ODEGARD: Advocate for themselves, try to reach out and get clear, concise information about what questions you need to ask, what information the school's collecting, look at those, have your child read to you.

Go in there and have your child read for their teachers. Hold the schools accountable for why a child like Clarice's daughter isn't able to read at even a kindergarten level. And you can clearly hear that if you take the time just to sit down and listen to her read. Use the misery that we feel as an opportunity for change.

This program aired on May 7, 2024.

• How Science Is Rewiring The Dyslexic Brain
• Millions Have Dyslexia, Few Understand It
• Dyslexia Made Henry Winkler Feel 'Stupid' For Years. Now, He's A Best-Selling Author
• Tips on how to deep read
• How reading aloud can help you bond with your kids and make them better readers

Jonathan Chang Producer/Director, On Point Jonathan is a producer/director at On Point.

Meghna Chakrabarti Host, On Point Meghna Chakrabarti is the host of On Point.

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Yahoo Finance

While shareholders of starbucks (nasdaq:sbux) are in the red over the last three years, underlying earnings have actually grown.

For many investors, the main point of stock picking is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But if you try your hand at stock picking, your risk returning less than the market. Unfortunately, that's been the case for longer term Starbucks Corporation ( NASDAQ:SBUX ) shareholders, since the share price is down 32% in the last three years, falling well short of the market return of around 20%. And more recent buyers are having a tough time too, with a drop of 28% in the last year. Furthermore, it's down 22% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders. This could be related to the recent financial results - you can catch up on the most recent data by reading our company report .

While the last three years has been tough for Starbucks shareholders, this past week has shown signs of promise. So let's look at the longer term fundamentals and see if they've been the driver of the negative returns.

View our latest analysis for Starbucks

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

During the unfortunate three years of share price decline, Starbucks actually saw its earnings per share (EPS) improve by 63% per year. This is quite a puzzle, and suggests there might be something temporarily buoying the share price. Alternatively, growth expectations may have been unreasonable in the past.

Since the change in EPS doesn't seem to correlate with the change in share price, it's worth taking a look at other metrics.

Revenue is actually up 12% over the three years, so the share price drop doesn't seem to hinge on revenue, either. This analysis is just perfunctory, but it might be worth researching Starbucks more closely, as sometimes stocks fall unfairly. This could present an opportunity.

The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Starbucks is a well known stock, with plenty of analyst coverage, suggesting some visibility into future growth. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

What About Dividends?

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Starbucks' TSR for the last 3 years was -27%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. This is largely a result of its dividend payments!

A Different Perspective

Investors in Starbucks had a tough year, with a total loss of 27% (including dividends), against a market gain of about 28%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 1.2% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Starbucks better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Starbucks has 2 warning signs (and 1 which can't be ignored) we think you should know about.

Of course Starbucks may not be the best stock to buy . So you may wish to see this free collection of growth stocks.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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