Rollanda E. O'Connor, PhD, is a reading specialist and Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. Previously, she taught reading in special and general education classrooms for many years. Dr. O'Connor's research has centered on issues of reading acquisition and reading improvement. She has conducted numerous reading intervention studies in general and special education settings, examined procedures to predict the students most likely to develop reading disabilities, and followed the reading progress of students who have received early interventio...