This book addresses crucial and controversial questions facing today's reading scholars, educators, and professionals. Demonstrating the diverse, and often divisive, opinions that characterize the field, leading contributors including--Isabel L. Beck, Vivian L. Gadsden, Taffy E. Raphael, Jane Hansen, Peter Afflerbach, P. David Pearson, Michael Pressley, Richard Anderson, and Marilyn Jager Adams--offer their insights and expertise on such issues as the phonics/whole language debate, the state of reading comprehension instruction, the validity of and need for standards and assessment, effective methods of teacher preparation, and family literacy.
Jean Osborn, MEd, is an educational consultant whose prior administrative, research, and teaching experience includes nearly 20 years on the staff of the Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois, during which she served as Associate Director for twelve years. The coeditor of four books on reading research, she is the author of more than 30 articles and book chapters, as well as a set of resource materials on textbook adoptions.
Fran Lehr, MA, an education writer who has also worked as a teacher and editor, served on the staff of the Center for the Study of Reading for seven years. She is coauthor (with Stephen Stahl and Jean Osborn) of a summary of Marilyn J. Adams' Beginning to Read and coeditor (with Jean Osborn) of Reading, Language, and Literacy.