Skills management systems: A critique. Johnson, D. D., & Pearson, P. D. (1975)

Dale Johnson and I wrote this 1975 piece in the heyday of Skills Management Systems like Wisconsin Design and Fountain Valley, all of which managed kids’ journey through a labyrinth of sub-skill tests and practice dittoes (before photo duplication), one skill after another after another.  … Read the rest

When portfolios become part of the grading process: A case study in a junior high setting. Sarroub, L. K., Pearson, P. D., Dykema, C., & Lloyd, R. (1997)

This book chapter published in the National Reading Conference Yearbook, 46th Edition, stands out to me as one of the more wonderful researcher/public school teacher collaborations of my career. Wow — the amount of work and thinking we did as we facilitated 8th graders’ understandings of the Michigan English Language Arts Framework standards at the time!… Read the rest

Science? Literacy? Synergy! Cervetti, G. N., Pearson, P. D., Greenleaf, C., & Moje, E. B. (2013)

We were invited to contribute to this volume on science and literacy instruction in light of the NGSS based on an earlier Science (2010) article by Pearson, Moje, and Greenleaf. This piece was an opportunity to find connections among our various projects on literacy in science, which had been developed for students at different grade levels and guided by different principles and goals.… Read the rest

Theory and practice in statewide reading assessment: Closing the gap. Valencia, S.W., Pearson, P.D. Peters, C.W., & Wixson, K. (1989)

The four of us (Sheila, Karen, Charlie, and I) were key movers in the novel assessments developed for Michigan (Karen and Charlie) and Illinois (Sheila and I) in the late 1980s.  This piece, written primarily for policy makers, outlines the rationale behind these efforts.… Read the rest

Assessment and Diversity. Garcia, G. E. & Pearson, P. D. (1994)

Linda Darling Hammond asked Joey and me to write this piece for one of her volumes of RRE.  We did not know what a treat we were in for when we acquired Ed Gordon as our consulting editor.  How much we learned!… Read the rest

The CIERA school change framework: An evidence‐based approach to professional development and school reading improvement. Taylor, B. M., Pearson, P. D., Peterson, D. S., Rodriguez, M. C. (2005)

This is the last of a series of 3 empirical papers on the work that a team of us, led by Barbara, wrote based on our six year line of work trying to unmask the elements of successful reform in early literacy.… Read the rest

Tierney, R. J. & Pearson, P. D. Learning to learn from text. (1981)

Rob and I wrote this piece in 1981 for the first edition of Dishner, Readence, & Bean’s Reading in the Content Area:  Improving Classroom Instruction.  In the second edition in 1992, it was reprinted with a “revisionist essay” telling what we would change about it 11 years later.… Read the rest

Increasing students’ awareness of sources of information for answering questions. Raphael, T. E. & Pearson, P. D. (1985)

This is one of several studies that Taffy published on Question-Answer Relations.  In addition detailing the internal workings of QAR pedagogy, the study also illustrates a classic gradual release of responsibility pedagogical model. … Read the rest