Teacher knowledge and instructional expertise have been found in correlational and pre- and post-test studies to be related to student reading achievement. This article summarizes data presented in this special issue and additional research to address four questions: (a) What do expert reading teachers know? (b) Why do teachers need to acquire…

In this paper I comment on recent recommendations that students' responsiveness to instruction (RTI) provides a basis for identification of students as learning disabled. I repeat an earlier argument (Gerber & Semmel, 1985) that teachers embedded in schools are naturally variable in their capacity to respond to differences in students' response to…

A teacher of young children shares personal experiences and professional approaches to facilitating growth in unique children. The educator's responsibility lies not in labeling differences in children, but in responding to those unique differences in the classroom by supporting students and utilizing their strengths. (Author/SW)