The roles of reading specialists differ from campus to campus throughout the study site due to varied implementations of Response to Intervention (RTI). To ensure that students were receiving consistent interventions based on their needs, the site needed to examine how and when instructional services were delivered to struggling students, as well as the role of the reading specialist in the process. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions, experiences, and roles of reading specialists as the RTI framework was implemented at the elementary school level. This study was guided by Vygotsky's social constructivist learning theory, which holds that understanding is built through interactions, observations, and experiences. The research questions focused on the reading specialists' understanding of RTI, reading specialists' roles in RTI, challenges of implementing RTI, and professional development provided on RTI. Data were transcribed, categorized, open coded, and thematically analyzed. Member checks were used to strengthen the trustworthiness of the findings. Results revealed 5 major themes: understanding the RTI process, supporting struggling students, lack of funding and resources, collaboration/communication, and staff development. The findings can contribute to positive social change by leading administrators, instructional support teachers, and reading specialists to an increased understanding of the RTI process, and thereby improving RTI implementation procedures for struggling readers and subsequently increasing student achievement.

This multiple-case study examined the role and educator perceptions of the reading specialist (RS) in the five secondary schools of one school district in the western United States. The purposes of the study were to determine: (1) the actual roles and responsibilities of the secondary RS, (2) whether differences existed in the way RSs, teachers, and principals perceived the role of the RS, and (3) whether the perceptions of the role of the RS were congruent with what the RS actually did. Five RSs, five focus groups comprised of twenty-three teachers, and five principals were interviewed. A survey was also administered to the aforementioned groups as well as to all teachers in the five schools. Results indicated that the role and responsibilities of the RS never included instructing students directly but that RSs focused almost exclusively on teacher leadership. In addition, RSs carried out school-wide assessments, assumed two to three additional major as well as various minor responsibilities within the school, and taught four periods during the day. Perceptions of the RS among RSs, teachers, and principals differed. Teachers, as a whole, indicated RSs worked with students, mainly taught literacy skills, and did not perform administrative tasks unrelated to literacy. Principals also thought RSs did not perform administrative tasks unrelated to literacy. RSs disagreed with all these perceptions. Principals approved and were generally satisfied with the work of the RSs and felt they were making a difference. However, they were more positive about the RSs' influence than were the RSs. Focus group teachers made positive comments about the RSs but also consistently brought up the need to have literacy inservice fashioned specifically to meet their content-area needs. Discrepancies existed between the perceived roles and responsibilities of the RSs and the duties they actually assumed and carried out.

The problem explored by this study is the nature of b-d confusion as it is exhibited by remedial and nonremedial readers at various elementary ages in the areas of letter identification, spelling, and reading. The purposes of Phase I of the study were to examine the progressive phase-out of b-d errors committed by samples of remedial and nonremedial readers and to explore certain factors that could be related to the problem. The object of Phase II was to describe subjects with extreme b-d reversal problems. Extreme b-d reversers were found to have been average or below on first-grade-readiness scores and significantly below grade-level placement in reading achievement. School marks were also generally low. As a whole, the extremes were predominantly right-handed and no sex bias was detected. When the extremes were compared to subjects above average in b-d responses, the extremes made significantly more errors on other letters, were able to read significantly fewer words, and required significantly more assistance in spelling. These groups significantly differed on position of b-d reversals in reading, but not in spelling, nor on the proportion of real words actually produced when reversals were made in reading. Reversal of b and d was not associated in the same population as b-p reversals.

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Gone are the days when the school librarian was the austere custodian of the books. Twenty-first-century standards progressively call for librarians to step in as instructional leaders, connecting educators and students to materials, methods, and technology across the curriculum. In an age of increased accountability through never-ending standardized testing, as well as the implementation of Common Core standards, classroom teachers need all the support they can get. To add fuel to the fire, numerous states have reduced their budgets, leaving reading specialists and literacy coaches short in terms of time and materials. Students who once received differentiated instruction or reading intervention are overlooked or underserved. Where can teachers and reading specialists receive support to help close the achievement gap? Librarians to the rescue! Currently, school librarians are discovering yet another dynamic leadership and role: coteacher with classroom teachers and reading specialists in the library learning commons. This article explores strategies for librarians to implement differentiated instruction in collaboration with classroom teachers and reading specialists using a coteaching model. Keywords: school librarians, literacy coaches, reading specialists ********** Librarians have long worn many hats that improve the learning of students in the school. These include instructional leader, technology specialist, promoter of reading initiatives, and guardian of books. Once again, librarians find themselves called upon to sport yet another: coteacher with classroom teachers and reading specialists. With a focus on preparing students to be college and career ready, the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) ask students to grapple with complex grade-level texts and write research papers. Even at the kindergarten level, students engage in rigorous learning that asks them to participate in shared research and writing projects (National Governor's Association, 2010). In this article we suggest that this rigorous learning requires teachers to join forces with others in the building to ensure student success. Thus the librarian, reading specialist, and classroom teacher form coteaching teams that address difficult concepts in such a way that the library becomes a learning commons (Loertscher, 2014). In this learning commons space, learners experience scaffolded support with print and differentiated instruction (DI) (Tomlinson, 1999) to address the achievement potential of students as they engage firsthand with the learning tasks set forth by the CCSS. In the learning commons, the library functions as a dynamic arena where librarians, reading specialists, and classroom teachers bring individual talents to the instructional process in a coteaching team. The idea of the learning commons still allows for print books to play a vital part in instruction; however, digital technologies also play a large role. Due to the rigor of the CCSS, this idea of a learning commons comes just in time. For the past ten to fifteen years, administrators have continuously called upon librarians to take a larger role in the literacy arena (Robins & Antrim, 2012). Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (AASL, 2009a) contends that librarians are uniquely positioned to affect reading outcomes of students. In many school districts, administrators have asked librarians to provide collaborative support to classroom teachers to identify materials and methods to support struggling readers. While in other districts, administrators have asked librarians to lead response to intervention groups. While these efforts to suggest and provide materials hold potential, they fall short due to the fact that one individual has limited impact in comparison with what teams of librarians, reading specialists, and classroom teachers might achieve in a learning commons. LIBRARIANS' ROLE IN COLLABORATIVE TEAMS IN THE LEARNING COMMONS If the expectation for librarians extends beyond the support already provided to include coteaching while also attending to duties in the library, what should librarians do? Build upon what they already know! Librarians regularly assist with the analysis of assessment data to determine students' and teachers' needs, the integration of technology, the provision of resources, and the implementation of instruction in the physical library space. For decades, librarians' instruction consisted of isolated units of study. These discrete units stand in stark contrast to Turner's (1993) suggestions that librarians join forces with teachers to plan instruction that extends and enriches classroom curriculum. The American Association of School Librarians (2009) calls for librarians to collaborate with instructors to create relevant instruction that motivates students to be lifelong learners. While collaboration is not a new idea, what is new are the dynamics that make up the coteaching team and ways to facilitate the alliance. Librarians support coteaching teams by serving as a connective agent with a physical and virtual venue: the learning commons. During the coteaching team's planning phase, librarians supply a common virtual space within the learning commons that expedites planning. The virtual learning commons alleviates planning concerns of distant geographic spaces and incompatible release times. …