Argues that the professional educator can make a major contribution to the workplace literacy effort by working closely with a content expert for the particular business. Describes a five-step procedure to conduct a "literacy audit": observe employees; collect materials; conduct interviews; assess skills; and develop assessment measures. (RS)

Reports the results of interviews with 12 reading specialists who stated their major concerns about reading education. States that the responses focused on three major categories: (1) changes in the definition of reading; (2) changes in the scope of reading programs; and (3) changes in people's attitudes to reflect the current understanding of…

Discusses ways a middle school reading specialist worked with fellow faculty members to promote reading strategies for independent reading in all content areas. (SR)

Obtains information about how teachers and reading specialist interns worked together to implement early intervention programs in three different school districts. Describes types of collaboration using observations in the classroom and interviews with interns and teachers. Suggests that the context in the school site, teacher preference, and…

The purpose of this case study is to describe the challenges one coach faced during the initial implementation of a coaching initiative involving 33 teachers in an urban, high-poverty elementary school. Reading coaches are increasingly expected to play a key role in the professional development efforts to improve reading instruction in order to…

On December 3, 2004, President Bush signed into law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004). The revised law is different from the previous version in at least one important respect. Whereas practitioners were previously encouraged to use IQ-achievement discrepancy to identify children with learning disabilities…

Provides guidelines to help reading professionals in administrative positions develop an awareness of conflict, become sensitive to situations that typically cause conflict, and begin to learn effective management strategies. (ARH)

Discusses a series of six studies that investigated the performance of 66 reading and learning disabilities specialists and classroom teachers who diagnosed simulated reading or learning disability cases and suggested remediation plans. Results indicate that both commonality and individual agreement among participants was very low. (AEA)

Reports on a study that examined whether different school staff members agreed on the importance of various roles performed by reading specialists. (FL)

Discusses the various roles reading specialists are expected to play in the school. (FL)

Suggests that reading specialists can be the change agents needed to bring reading research information to teachers in a practical manner. (MKM)

Presents an annotated checklist that reading specialists can distribute to all teachers describing services that the reading specialist can perform. (MKM)

Argues that reading resource specialists can show content area teachers how to create an atmosphere of support, modeling and guiding students to become strategic readers who gain control of their own learning. (RS)

Identifies five teacher-assistance models that rely on formal support systems for classroom teachers as they engage in the teaching of reading. States several characteristics of effective support teachers. (MG)

A reading specialist who worked in a high-poverty urban elementary school that initially did not have an exemplary reading program provides seven lessons that can serve as a guidepost for other reading specialists. Several approaches that led to improved reading achievement of upper elementary school children are described. The seven lessons, when…