In The News

Simmons School Educator Receives Prestigious Award

Margaret T. Smith, instructor in the School's Learning Therapy certification program, received this year's Aylett R. Cox ALTA (Academic Language Therapy Association)  Educator Award, which is given to educators who have made significant impacts in the lives of individuals with dyslexia. 

Margaret Smith has long been an advocate for dyslexic students.  She provided testimony in support of passage of a 1985 Texas state law requiring public schools to identify dyslexic students and provide appropriate education.  She worked with the Texas Education Agency on a volunteer basis to help draft the original procedures concerning dyslexia as well as their subsequent revisions in 1998, 2001 and 2007.  She served as a member of the Texas Education Agency English Language Arts writing team for developing the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts curriculum.  Margaret's professional career in education began as a public school classroom teacher.  After many years as a regular classroom teacher, she received extensive training from the Dyslexia Child Study Unit at Texas Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital and began teaching dyslexic and LD students in grades 1-12 in a public school setting.  

In 1976, she was invited by Aylett Cox, director of the Dean Teacher Training Center, to join the teaching staff of the Dean Center.  She worked closely with Aylett  Cox for more than 6 years and, in 1982, became the co-director and founder of the EDMAR Educational Services with the goal of training teachers on local school sites. She published the Multisensory Teaching Approach (MTA) curriculum to fulfill that need and to this day writes educational materials and works in the areas of early identification, comprehension, and fluency and automacity.

An internationally known author and authority on dyslexia, Margaret Smith is a frequent presenter at state, national, and international conferences on dyslexia.