This article explores how the general term of assessment literacy can be specified to the area of reading through the lens of the informal reading inventory, Qualitative Reading Inventory-5. This article will investigate the common misconceptions that teachers, who were enrolled in a graduate program to become state-certified specialized literacy…

This paper will explain what a reading teacher learned from working with a group of first-grade struggling readers in a series of shared-book experience classes. The shared-book experience approach used a variety of science-themed books that were aligned with the first-grade curriculum and appropriate for beginning readers. Considering the…

Critics of the public release of teacher evaluation scores sometimes liken these ratings to the scarlet letter worn by Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel. The comparison is apt. But public school teachers who are subjected to public shaming because of their students' test scores can rarely expect the opportunities for redemption…

Most mathematics teachers and literacy teachers believe they live and function in separate worlds. This paper presents a professional development project designed to encourage middle school mathematics teachers and literacy coaches to work collaboratively within a constructivist model to explore how mathematics and literacy skills and strategies…

This study analyzed characteristics of classrooms where recreational reading is being implemented. It scrutinized those classrooms that housed successful programs and looked for common elements among them. Specifically, we explored the physical, teacher, student, and program factors within these classrooms that contributed toward their success.…

Literacy coaching is a very hot topic (Cassidy & Cassidy, 2007) that has been spurred on by two opposite belief systems. On one hand, the Reading First schools can receive federal funding to hire coaches to raise test scores. This has led some teachers to characterize coaches as "test-prep enforcers." On the other hand, Bean, Swan…

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

This study examined the nature of the partnership between clinicians and parents of two struggling readers at a university reading clinic. Research questions sought to examine the roles of the clinicians and parents in the reading clinic and the ways, if any, their partnership facilitated reading improvement of the children involved. Data were…