Evaluates roles and responsibilities of the reading specialist as an instructional leader in schools and school systems. The course addresses such curricular and instructional issues as research-based teaching strategies, grouping practices, and formal and informal assessments. Participants review and analyze these issues for their usefulness and appropriateness for implementation in schools and school systems. Participants also explore the human dimensions of the reading specialist's responsibilities with regard to the ARD process and relationships with parents/guardians, community groups, administrators, teachers and specialists within instructional structures and with experts in the field whose work may contribute to enhancing student reading skills. The course prepares the reading specialist to be a colleague and consultant to classroom teachers as well as a resource person for disseminating state, local and professional initiatives related to reading instruction. The reading specialist is also prepared to be a participant in program and staff development, an effective communicator of goals and programs for all constituencies, and an academic resource equipped to pioneer, foster, support, guide and assess the principles, methods and procedures that will improve reading instruction throughout a school and/or school system. [ 3 credits ]