Serving both teachers and students in a hybrid literacy professional role requires thoughtful planning and reflection. In this article, the authors reflect on their work over the course of one school year to determine how to manage time effectively to combine the job descriptions of reading specialist and literacy coach. Strategies are presented…

The Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was first implemented in Austin Independent School District during the 2012-2013 school year. This report summarizes Fall 2014 survey responses from administrators at TLI campuses.

Lead writers and co-chairs of the International Literacy Association's "Standards 2017" provide a hands on guide to using updated standards for the preparation of reading/literacy specialists. Authors share key changes in content, supporting explanations with updated references, and implications for program faculty, state policymakers,…

Imagine the opportunity to invest in 2 1/2 years of thoughtful and stimulating interaction and learning with colleagues from around the nation and beyond. In 2010, Karla McAdam was the winner of a competitive Learning Forward Foundation scholarship that allowed her to do just that. McAdam, then a district resource reading specialist for Decatur…

The Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was first implemented in Austin Independent School District during the 2012-2013 school year. This report summarizes Fall 2014 survey responses from teachers at TLI campuses.

The Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was first implemented in Austin Independent School District during the 2012-2013 school year. This report summarizes Fall 2014 survey responses from coaches and specialists at TLI campuses.

"Setting the Foundation: A Report on Elementary Grades Reading in Tennessee" (ED572952) provides insight into the challenges associated with early grades reading in Tennessee, along with a set of recommendations for building more readers across the state. This appendix provides detailed information about reading programs in Tennessee…

Austin Independent School District's Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was a grant-funded effort to improve students' school readiness and success in the areas of language and literacy in the Johnson, Lanier, and Travis vertical teams of schools. This report summarizes results from a survey sent to TLI teachers in Fall 2013 to obtain their feedback…

This article presents an interview with Janet W. Lerner, professor emerita of special education at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Lerner also serves as an adjunct professor in the Professional Assistant Center for Education (PACE) for Young Adults with Multiple Learning Disabilities at National Louis University and as…

Austin Independent School District's Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was a grant-funded effort to improve students' school readiness and success in the areas of language and literacy in the Johnson, Lanier, and Travis vertical teams of schools. A survey was sent to TLI campus reading coaches and specialists in Fall 2013 to obtain their feedback on…

The Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) was first implemented in Austin Independent School District during the 2012-2013 school. This report summarizes Spring 2014 survey responses from administrators at TLI campuses.

The existence of elementary reading specialists in schools has increased, and their role in improving schoolwide efforts for prevention and intervention of reading risk has received increased emphasis. The purpose of this article is to describe the components of a multitier schoolwide reading model in the early grades in which the reading…

This article describes the development and initial implementation of the Comprehension and Learning from Text Survey (CoLTS), an instrument designed to assess teachers' specialized knowledge for comprehension instruction in the context of discussion. CoLTS is a paper-and-pencil test that engages teachers in analyzing a text to identify the most…

Classroom-based assessments are important resources for teachers and reading specialists for informing instruction. Their benefits can be enhanced by designing measures that assess more than single skills, that follow formative assessment principles, and that involve multimodal formats and student responses. Because of the diversity in K-6…

Since teachers lack a certified reading specialist to guide their high school literacy efforts, they have never had a well-reasoned, research-based plan for addressing the growing needs of adolescent readers. According to a June 2009 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report, most U. S. secondary schools do have personnel who are…