Barbara Taylor

Currently, I am the director of the Minnesota Center for Reading Research. The mission of the Center is to conduct a) applied research on reading and b) research on teaching approaches that facilitate reading instruction. The focus is on research that supports teachers, particularly those who teach students of poverty, as they learn to effectively teach children and youth from diverse backgrounds, to become competent readers in K-12 school settings.

My personal research interests focus on early reading intervention, school-wide reading improvement, and school and teacher factors contributing to children’s success in reading. For the past eight years, I have been researching the effectiveness of the School Change in Reading Framework in high-poverty schools. This model of school change stresses reflection on and improvement of teaching through collaborative professional development and use of data to drive the reform effort. Results indicate that the model is effective in increasing students’ reading achievement. The framework is the protocol for the Minnesota Reading First Professional Development Program that I am heading up for 26 Reading First schools in Minnesota. As part of this work I visit one or two schools a week.

I am also a co-PI with colleagues at the University of Illinois and the University of California - Berkeley on a research study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. We are examining the relative effectiveness of several research-based approaches to comprehension instruction for second and fourth grade students. Ongoing professional development is an important part of this project that is being conducted at sites in Illinois and California as well as Minnesota.