This article is built on the assumption that deepening urban educators’ understanding of the reading process will better equip them to facilitate students’ reading development and to diagnose and intervene if reading difficulties are discovered.

This article explores two different methods in developing reading fluency.

To prevent reading failure, educators must understand and act on scientific evidence of reading research. This article provides information on the scientific evidence of teaching, qualitative and quantitative research on reading, how reading develops, and a systemwide response to preventing failure.

This article reviews how some student learn to read without explicit instruction and why it occurs. They explain how it is not magic and these students are actually employing specific reading behaviors.

This article discusses how some teachers were never shown how to teach reading properly and it reviews relevant and valuable vocabulary.

This article reviews a detailed description of the “reading wars” and how it came to be. There is also information on the science of reading and the research backing up the findings behind this new method of teaching.

This article reviews why educators are hesitant to embrace a new approach to teaching students how to read. Throughout this article, there is an explanation of the hierarchy of expertise, understanding reading, the responsibility of the teacher, trainings, and relationships with colleagues, and how that impacts a teacher’s thought process.

In this article, Jon Gustafson discusses three cracks in constructivism. These three holes in the pedagogy are the primary reasons he changed his mind about what good, effective teaching looks like since leaving his teacher training.

This Q&A is presented by Emily Solari. Solari is a professor of reading education at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and Human Development. Throughout this article she discusses how she sees the pathway to increasing literacy skills in American students and how now is a critically important time for it to happen.

Timothy Shanahan provides his perspectives on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Throughout this article he reviews the how you should and should no prepare students for the new tests in their school.

In this issue of Knowledge Matters, the top three takeaways are as follows:

1. In reading, the best indicator of whether a student is college ready is the ability to understand complex texts.

2. Texts assigned in high school tend to be only a little harder than those assigned in middle school and significantly less complex than those assigned in college.

3. To give all children a real shot at being college ready, we have to start building knowledge and vocabulary, and immersing students in academic language with sophisticated syntax, from the very first day of school.

In this article by Erica Meltzer, she breaks down the science of reading research and how it influences an individual’s ability to teach reading. There is also a discussion of teacher training programs that do not properly prepare them to be successful teachers.

This article is written by Matt Horrisberger. Matt provides a personal story of his experience as a struggling young reader with dyslexia who grew up to be a successful and intelligent student who worked through his inability to read. If it was not for his connection to excellent teachers and mentors, Matt may not have been able to overcome his struggles in reading and writing.

This article discusses the Reading Eggs and whether or not it is as beneficial as it is thought to be. The author reviews what the Reading Eggs is and how early reading and spelling should be taught.

Carmen Iturbe provides information on Dialogic Reading. She explains what it is, what it isn’t, why it is useful, how to implement it, tips and much more.

In this article by Emily Hanford, she provides information on Mississippi’s sudden increase in standardized test scores, and most notably, in reading achievement. The state of Mississippi has taken on the Science of Reading approach and implemented it in schools, and it has proven to be very successful. Click here to find out more.

This article reviews information about the Reading Wars and why the best practices for teaching reading in school do not mimic natural learning.