This special issue is a "how to" on overcoming the many systems-level challenges in K-12 public education to implement effective reading interventions for the vast numbers of students reading below grade level. It emphasizes building researcher-practitioner partnerships, providing ongoing professional development for teachers, and removing institutional barriers to change as the keys to effective reading intervention. Interventions for the upper grades focus on the challenges of coaxing content-area teachers to learn new routines for building background knowledge, teaching academic vocabulary, and conducting discussions to foster critical reading and knowledge application. In the primary grades, interventions follow a multi-tiered system of support where enhanced classroom instruction is supported by small-group intervention for struggling readers. The volume also discusses the importance of training special educators to implement data-based individuation. This is the 154th volume in this Jossey-Bass series New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in this subject area. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts from that field.

Author Biography

Barbara R. Foorman is the Francis Eppes professor of Education, Emeritus director of the Florida Center for Reading Research, and the director of the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast at Florida State University.