The study examined how, in the current context of reading reform, teachers' beliefs coalesced and aligned with prevailing paradigms of reading instruction (Science of Reading, Balanced Literacy, and Whole Language). The sample included 14 graduate students (in-service teachers) and 13 undergraduate students (pre-service teachers). Q Methodology…

Recent trends in teacher preparation have been toward a clinical model that provides teacher candidates with more authentic classroom experiences that are connected with methods courses. One type of clinical model that is on the rise is known as a professional development school (PDS). PDS structures are formal arrangements between P-12 schools…

This small scale, exploratory study reveals how writing instruction is taught to preservice teachers across the United States in university-based preservice teacher education programs based on online survey results from 63 teacher educators in literacy from 50 institutions. Despite the growing writing demands and high stakes writing sample testing…

This article discusses the lingering problem of poor and inappropriate preparation of professional teachers of reading and learning disabilities--why it exists and what we can do about it. Because most students classified as having learning disabilities experience primary difficulties with language-based learning, teachers must know how to teach…

Teacher educators examined three aspects of expertise in reading instruction in 15 preservice, classroom, and intervention teachers at three distinctively different points in their professional development. In one sitting, participants responded to two video clips showing the same first-grade child reading familiar text in a Reading Recovery…

As part of an on-going project designed to impact teacher quality at the pre-service, induction, and professional development levels, this paper summarizes the parametric results of a series of four different workshops conducted in the summer of 2007. In an effort to glean a better understanding of their knowledge, attitudinal, perceptual, and…

This study examined the learning of teacher candidates taking a language arts course in a special-educator preparation program and that of the second graders they tutored in a supervised field component of the course. Teacher candidates' knowledge of literacy instruction was assessed using five knowledge tasks; children were assessed on several…

To prepare students for postsecondary education, educators and policymakers must perform two tasks at the same time: restructure high schools so they are aligned to the expectations of colleges and revamp instruction so that college readiness is the goal, measure, and substance of good teaching. The research is clear: the key to preparing students…

This book presents a selection of the research and papers presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the College Reading Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October, 2006. This Yearbook begins with Karen Bromley's presidential address, which explored the future of writing by discussing four predictions: the notion that pens and pencils will be…

This article is a descriptive account of a professional learning community established among university professors, university teacher candidates, a school district instructional supervisor, the high school principal, a high school literacy coordinator, and teachers of a Mid-Atlantic high school in the United States. This learning community…

Concludes that, contrary to what some literature suggests, the university supervisor is still perceived as playing a vital role in preservice teachers' professional development. (FL)

This paper is a summary of the evaluation of the second complete year of the implementation of the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI), which is designed to achieve 100% literacy by targeting reading performance of beginning reading and first-grade students, to expand the reading power for second- through twelfth-grade students and to intervene for…

A study examined the effectiveness and the impact of preservice instruction of the second year of the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI), which is designed to achieve 100% literacy by targeting reading performance of beginning reading and first-grade students, to expand the reading power for second- through twelfth-grade students, and to intervene…

A taxonomy of teacher responses to pupils' connected reading was developed to characterize the instructional decisions and development of teacher interactions with individual readers. In developing this instrument, content analysis procedures were used to investigate actual teacher responses to readers. The X axis (reading categories) of the…

This Yearbook begins with Robert J. Rickelman's presidential speech, "Predicting the Whether: Lessons Learned from the Past," which focused on looking at the "History of the College Reading Association" in order to predict some possible (the "whether") courses for the future of the organization. The author relied…