Highly Accomplished Primary Grade Teachers in Effective Schools

In the influential report, Preventing Reading Failure in Young Children (Snow, Burns, & Griffith, 1998) quality classroom instruction was singled out as the “single best weapon against reading failure.” The National Reading Panel Report (2000) concluded that “appropriate teacher education does produce higher achievement in students.” Much of the recent federal legislation pertaining to school reform and reading improvement such as the Comprehensive School Reform Act or the Reading Excellence Act stresses the importance of ongoing professional development for teachers to improve classroom reading instruction.