After rating their own literacy-related knowledge in three areas (knowledge about reading/reading development, phonemic awareness/phonics, and morpheme awareness/structural analysis), graduate teacher-education students completed five tasks intended to measure their actual disciplinary knowledge in these areas. Teachers with high levels of prior background (i.e., course preparation and experience) rated themselves as significantly more knowledgeable than did low-background teachers in all areas; high-background participants also significantly outperformed low-background participants on all tasks. However, even high-background teachers scored well below ceiling on the tasks. Regression analyses indicated that teachers' self-perceptions and knowledge were positively influenced by both level of preparation and teaching experience, although the influences on teachers' knowledge differed by task. Teachers had some accurate perceptions of their own knowledge, especially in the area of phonics. Results suggest that differentiating levels of preparation may be useful in studying teacher knowledge, and also support the notion of a substantial gap between research on reading and teacher preparation in reading.

This study examined sixth-graders' reading comprehension and component reading abilities in relation to two measures of print exposure: an author recognition test (ART) involving fiction authors and a reading habits questionnaire (RHQ) about children's voluntary reading for enjoyment across various genres. The ART correlated only with children's fiction book reading habits, not with other habits such as nonfiction book or magazine reading, and had a stronger relationship to all tested reading abilities than did the RHQ. Strong comprehenders in reading outperformed weak comprehenders on all component reading measures, ART score, and fiction habits; however, weak comprehenders scored higher than did strong comprehenders on the indicator of nonfiction reading habits. The two groups of comprehenders did not differ significantly on other reported reading habits. The results are discussed in relation to children's specific book choices and demonstrate the relevance of genre to evaluations of children's print exposure.Not long ago, the Commissioner of Education in our state convened a reading summit attended by reading specialists, general educators, higher education faculty, and others with an interest in children's reading achievement. A central purpose of the summit was to address stagnant scores on the state-mandated reading comprehension assessment. One common viewpoint was captured on local radio by an attendee who

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General and special education are confronting tremendous change resulting from legal mandates related to closing the achievement gap under No Child Left Behind and a focus on early intervention and prevention in the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 2004. As a result, schoolwide intervention approaches are under rapid development, evaluation, and implementation across the country. Based on these approaches, the authors present a conceptual model for redefining special educators as interventionists who focus on the adoption and use of evidence-based, schoolwide academic and behavioral interventions. Examples of the roles and responsibilities for interventionists within the schoolwide model are provided.

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