Louise Spear-Swerling

Louise Spear-Swerling, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita from the Department of Special Education at Southern Connecticut State University, in New Haven CT. She helped prepare both general and special educators to teach reading using Structured Literacy approaches for many years, including supervising a public-school tutoring program that paired teacher candidates with struggling readers. Her research interests include children's reading development, reading difficulties, and the knowledge and skills needed to teach reading effectively, especially to struggling and at-risk readers. She has presented and published widely on these topics. Dr. Spear-Swerling's most recent books are "Structured Literacy Interventions: Teaching Students with Reading Difficulties, K-6," and the forthcoming "The Structured Literacy Planner: Designing Interventions for Common Reading Difficulties, Grades 1-9," both published by Guilford. She also is a member of several journal editorial boards, including those for Annals of Dyslexia, Teaching Exceptional Children, and Reading Psychology. She consults often for K-12 school districts, mostly on students with severe or persistent literacy difficulties and ways to improve their achievement.