Preparing Reading Specialist Candidates for Leadership Positions in the Schools?

This article reports on the results of 11 interviews conducted as a follow-up to a survey that examined the perceptions of university faculty regarding the importance of graduate programs preparing reading specialists for leadership roles. The results of the interviews indicate that pro-grams require a leadership course that has reading specialist candidates actually working with classroom teachers in a school setting. These programs also require that reading specialist can-didates provide professional development and develop skills in communication and collaboration. We suggest that the surveyed programs provide a model of what could be offered in master’s degree/certification programs for reading specialists