Improving Reading, Writing, and Content Learning for Students in Grades 4-12

Rosemarye T. Taylor has a rich background that includes middle and high school teaching and school administration. She was a reading, language arts, and Spanish teacher and also served as a middle and high school administrator, and district-level administrator in Georgia and Florida. In private sector management, she was director of professional development for Scholastic, Inc., New York. Currently, she is associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Much of her success is due to conceptualizing, creating, and implementing fail-safe systems that work seamlessly to support improvements in student learning. As an example, Taylor led research, design, and implementation of the Orange County Literacy Program that has successfully impacted thousands of elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers. The classroom concept designed, implemented, and evaluated with her leadership has been produced as a literacy intervention product by Scholastic, Inc. Additionally, in Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida, she designed and implemented a curriculum system including curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development supporting the notion that systems make the work of administrators and teachers easier. A consistent thread in these successful systems has been supporting the development and implementation of learning communities to advance student achievement by providing structure within which to empower the classroom teachers to make gains day by day. As associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Central Florida, her specialty is instructional leadership. She has conducted research on leadership particularly as it relates to accountability. Presentations on this topic have been given at University Council of Educational Administration, American Association of Educational Research, American Association of School Administrators, International Reading Association, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and National Middle School Association conferences. Her articles have been published in Kappan, Educational Leadership, Middle School Journal, Schools in the Middle, American Secondary Education, AASA Professor, The National Staff Development Journal, Principal Leadership, The School Administrator, and International Journal of Education Management. Three books, The K-12 Literacy Leadership Fieldbook (2005), Literacy Leadership for Grades 5-12, (2003), and Leading With Character to Improve Student Achievement (2003), reflect the commitment to all students learning more through leadership that creates ethical fail-safe systems. She serves as consultant on literacy, learning communities, curriculum system development, and leadership to schools, districts, and professional organizations.