Timothy Shanahan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was Founding Director of the UIC Center for Literacy. Previously, he was director of reading for the Chicago Public Schools. He is author/editor of more than 200 publications on literacy education. His research emphasizes the connections between reading and writing, literacy in the disciplines, and improvement of reading achievement.
Tim is past president of the International Literacy Association. He served as a member of the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and he helped lead the National Reading Panel, convened at the request of Congress to evaluate research on the teaching reading, a major influence on reading education. He chaired two other federal research review panels: the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, and the National Early Literacy Panel, and helped write the Common Core State Standards.
He was inducted to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2007, and is a former first-grade teacher.
Recent articles
Afterschool and Community Programs
Creating Programs for Language Minority Families
Common Core Standards
Does Disciplinary Literacy Have a Place in Elementary School?
Background Knowledge
Five Key Principles for Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Recent blog posts
Shanahan on Literacy
Who’s Right about Text Complexity, You or the Institute of Education Sciences?
Shanahan on Literacy
Does “Modeling” Have a Place in High-Quality Literacy Teaching?
Shanahan on Literacy
What About Special Fonts for Kids with Dyslexia or Other Reading Problems?
Shanahan on Literacy
How to Analyze or Assess Reading Comprehension
Shanahan on Literacy
Cool New Study on Text Difficulty and Adolescent Literacy
Shanahan on Literacy
When should reading instruction begin?
Shanahan on Literacy
How Decodable Do Decodable Texts Need to Be?: What We Teach When We Teach Phonics
Shanahan on Literacy
I’m a Terrific Reading Teacher, Why Should I Follow the Research?
Shanahan on Literacy
Five Things Every Teacher Should Know about Vocabulary Instruction
Shanahan on Literacy
What Do You Think of the Reading Workshop? or How Not to Teach Reading Comprehension
Shanahan on Literacy