Educators in rural settings experience many unique professional circumstances due to the rural context of their schools; one such unique circumstance is professional development opportunities that are unavailable locally. Rural reading specialists have limited opportunities for local professional development as well as limited opportunities for…

Student success is closely related to student engagement and literacy instruction, which can positively or negatively impact a student. It has been documented that children motivated to read have a strong sense of reading efficacy and academic competence (Wigfield et al., 2015). This research study addressed the skills needed by literacy…

This action research case study examined how adolescent male readers in reading intervention classes experienced and identified themselves as readers. Additionally, this case study was a self-study in that explored how I, a reading specialist, fostered student reading engagement and reader identity development. This study explored the research…

This article describes a literacy methods course designed to introduce reading specialist candidates to research-based practices for comprehension instruction. Specifically, this article focuses on a sequence of assignments and class sessions within that course that introduced theoretical perspectives about comprehension processes and how those…

Millions of children in the United States struggle with reading acquisition, many of whom are identified with developmental dyslexia (DD). Although experimental research indicates that evidence-based reading interventions can bring many of these children to average-range reading skills, such promising outcomes are not commonly achieved within K-12…

Policy, mandating early screening for dyslexia and use of specific interventions, is increasing throughout the United States. The authors designed a descriptive case study to learn what impact policies have on practice and how literacy specialists, trained in both comprehensive and structured literacy approaches, provide support for students. Data…

Learning to read is a primary task of students at the beginning of their elementary years. For some students, learning to read is a struggle. Support for struggling students often comes from reading specialists who can provide further support beyond the classroom through Title I services. Support has not been consistent since March 2020, due to…

Teacher expertise can have a large influence on student experiences and achievement. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences, practices, and beliefs of early elementary classroom teachers who have supplementary literacy certification. Although characteristics of effective literacy teachers have been identified in previous…

This mixed methods study reports on seven library science and reading education students' experiences before, during, and after a small newly developed shortterm interdisciplinary study abroad, and its effects on their intercultural sensitivity. The evidence collected in this study affirms our belief in the potential for experiential learning,…

Federal accountability policies requiring rapid, measurable outcomes have increasingly shaped the nature and type of public literacy services available to adults. However, little empirical research has explored the impact of accountability policies on program practice in adult basic education, and almost no research has focused on the effect on…

The purpose of this Action Research study was to investigate the curricula used by Readers' Workshop teachers at an independent day school and the successes and barriers of having an external reading consultant provided by the program. The study compared the relationship between an external reading consultant with the desire of an in-house…

This study examined an in-service teacher's enactment of code-meshing and code-switching pedagogies in a clinical summer reading clinic, as a requirement for a reading specialist program. Thus, the enactment of code-meshing pedagogies was based upon embracing the students' use of African American English (AAE) in academic writing contexts and…

In this multiple case study, the author analyzes the work of three elementary school teachers who served as instructional support specialists in reading, ESL, and gifted education.

Adding to the current body of research on inference making skills and young learners, this study examined the knowledge base of classroom teachers, speech-language pathologists, and other literacy specialists. Specifically, educator knowledge was considered in relation to the extant literature on the inference making abilities of young children.…

Students who develop proficient reading skills are more likely to experience positive outcomes both in and beyond the school setting. If students start developing strong literacy skills at a young age, they are more likely to perform well in school and achieve academic success. Despite ongoing efforts to support students' development of reading…