This large-scale national survey of specialized literacy professionals was designed to answer questions about responsibilities, including leadership, and preparation for these roles. Questionnaires, completed by over 2,500 respondents, indicated that respondents had multiple responsibilities that included both instruction of struggling readers and…

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…

The authors are professors of literacy in a teacher education program that leads to a reading endorsement. Their graduates are reading specialists, literacy coaches, and district language arts specialists--but only if, in addition to the coursework and practicum experience that make up their National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education…

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…

There is a lack of research on how Wisconsin's high schools are addressing the literacy needs of their students. State Statute 118.015 requires a district reading specialist, but there has been very little research done on compliance; therefore, the first phase of the study was to collect and analyze both demographic and descriptive data via a…

Currently students who struggle with language and literacy learning are classified with various labels in different states--language learning disabilities, dyslexia, specific language impairment, and specific learning disability--in spite of having similar diagnostic profiles. Drawing on the research on comprehension of written language, we…

Collaborative Strategic Reading is an innovative new approach to teaching reading that weaves together two instructional programs: cooperative learning and reading comprehension strategy instruction. In small groups, students work through the four main steps-Preview, "Click and Clunk," Get the Gist, and Wrap Up-helping each other improve…

This descriptive qualitative case study explored the changing role of the reading specialist through various perceptions of professionals in the Neon Shadow School District. The purpose of the study was to explore what, how, and why the duties and responsibilities of the reading specialist have changed since first employed as an…

This descriptive study examined reading specialists in independent, private schools. The context of reading specialists in independent, private schools and their alignment with reading professional's standards was not previously identified. The purposes of this study were to determine how many independent, private schools employed reading…

The purpose of this project was to determine the relationship supplemental reading services had on first and second grade students who were identified in need of intervention services. Participants were from three elementary schools. Two of the schools received funding through Title I. The third school's supplemental reading services were funded…

Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) is widely understood as representing a multilevel framework that integrates assessment and instruction to provide strong early intervention and valid methods of disability identification. There are currently many approaches to RTI, which are creating confusion among educators as they try to conceptualize,…

This was a qualitative case study that compared data across six district-level literacy coaches' epistemological and ontological beliefs about how to teach reading. All six coaches were working as a cohort of literacy coaches on the development and implementation of a secondary reading intervention program for seventh-grade struggling readers.…

This research examined the relevance of professional associations to effective reading teaching in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). It looked at the performances of students in meets and exceeds in the Illinois State Achievement Test (ISAT) for third and eight grade students in selected schools in CPS between 1999 and 2004 and how the professional…

In this age of accountability and assessment, classroom teachers need to be encouraged to become action researchers. Action research helps them look at a challenge in the classroom in depth and adjust the curriculum, their teaching methods, or both when they find that current practices are not meeting the needs of some or all students. If…