Preparing Effective Teachers of Reading:
Putting Research Findings to Work for Student Learning

Release Date: February 2008

Dr. Boyce C. Williams, Editor

The RFTEN book will introduce educators and administrators (K-12 and higher education) of the project, show them how a higher education initiative used collabora­tion and partnerships to respond to one of the greatest needs facing the nation—improving the reading achievement of poor and minority children.

The book will also provide readers with a forum for understanding scientifically-based reading research (SBRR) and instruction and the five essential components of reading. In addition, the book will showcase through evaluation findings and a case study, how diverse (geographic, ethnic, and racial) institutions are creating national models for bridging the achievement gap in reading, teaching reading, preparing new teachers, and engaging key stakeholders by transforming curriculum and syllabi, establishing reading centers, and providing directed teaching and tutoring experiences for candidates.

What readers will learn from the RFTEN book:

• The climate in which RFTEN emerges. Poor and minority children were failing to read by grade four despite a host of state, local, and national interventions.
• How and why RFTEN’s response and approach to what it saw as a crisis in American education was distinctive.
• How RFTEN operated using key partners; collaborations with minority-serving institutions with an historic legacy of education Black, Hispanic, and Native American teachers to transform how teachers are prepared to teach reading; ongoing professional development as the centerpiece of its direct training and service to teacher educators.
• The role of technical assistants (Quality Assurance Coaching Consultants) and national reading consultants to project implementation and to curriculum transformation in reading.
• Why reading is fundamental to bridging or closing the achievement gap.
• Why it is possible, even probable that teacher candidates can be licensed to teach elementary students in 2006 without demonstrating their knowledge of essential components of reading instruction?
• The intended and unintended outcomes of the RFTEN project.
• Lessons learned from RFTEN and implications for addressing the achievement gap in reading and in mathematics.

How the book is structured:
The book is written by multiple authors who include those who have served as RFTEN staff, external evaluators, consultants or leading content-area experts.

Audience:
Academic with an emphasis on teacher educators and classroom teachers.

Order a copy: Amazon.com or Peter Lang Publishing Group