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.  We critiqued these early attempts for putting accountability before learning, […]

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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 […]

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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. Within the CIERA School Change Framework, Professional Development and Professional Learning Communities were […]

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