GPS Ignite: Empowering Girls with Dyslexia & Learning Differences in Chattanooga

Throughout my career in school psychology and middle school education, I have spent a great deal of time devoted to helping students thrive and determining what can sometimes stand in their way. I have also witnessed the moment when a girl finally understands that struggling with reading, writing, organization, or time management does not reflect on her intelligence or potential. Often, she simply needs instruction that is better matched to how she learns.

That belief is at the heart of GPS Ignite, a new program that supports girls with dyslexia, language-based learning differences, and executive functioning deficits. I am incredibly proud that GPS has invested in our students and thrilled to welcome our inaugural cohort.

| What Is Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that can affect reading accuracy and fluency, spelling, writing, and other language skills. While the impact is lifelong, the way dyslexia affects a student may change as she grows. Research supports explicit, systematic structured literacy instruction for students who have difficulty learning to read and spell, rather than expecting them to discover language patterns independently.

| What Are Executive Functioning Skills?
Executive functioning skills are equally important to a student’s success. These are the skills that help us hold information in mind, focus our attention, manage distractions, shift between tasks, plan ahead, organize materials, manage time, and complete a goal. These skills operate much like an air traffic control system for the brain, helping a student coordinate the many demands competing for her attention each day.

| When Do Learning Challenges Arise?
For many girls, difficulties in these areas become especially noticeable during middle school. Students are managing more teachers, more assignments, more complex texts, and longer-term projects along with increasing expectations for independence. At the same time, executive functioning skills are still developing and have not yet reached adult levels. Adolescents need continued opportunities to practice organization, planning, decision-making, self-monitoring, and effective study habits—with adults gradually transferring greater responsibility to them.

Therefore middle school presents a crucial time to intervene. Those formative years of adolescence offer a window in which we can strengthen foundational academic skills while also helping girls build the habits, strategies, confidence, and self-awareness they will need in high school, college, and beyond.

| How Does GPS Ignite Help?
GPS Ignite brings those two areas of support together in a way that we believe is unique in our region. Our Dyslexia Specialist provides targeted, evidence-based literacy instruction, while our Executive Functioning Coach helps students develop practical systems for planning, organization, time management, studying, and self-advocacy. Students who participate in frequent, small-group sessions receive highly personalized instruction while remaining closely connected to their broader GPS experience.

The goal of Ignite is not simply to help a student complete tonight’s homework or prepare for Friday’s test. We want each girl to understand herself more deeply as a learner. We want her to recognize her strengths, identify the strategies that work for her, ask for help when she needs it, and approach challenges with growing confidence and independence.

I highly value our commitment to seeing and knowing each girl, and GPS Ignite is an extension of that commitment. The program recognizes that girls can be bright, curious, creative, and highly capable while also needing specialized support in particular areas. Our objective is to create not only an exceptional experience for this first group of girls, but also a model of support that becomes an important resource for families throughout Chattanooga and the surrounding region.

I could not be more excited to launch GPS Ignite. Most of all, I am excited to watch these girls discover that receiving the right support does more than improve academic skills. Specialized support can change how a student understands herself, what she believes she can accomplish, and how confidently she moves forward.

Stay tuned for more information about supporting students with learning differences on our next Middle School Matters podcast, where we will chat with Sarah Clardy, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, Instructional Coach, and Dyslexia Specialist.