WINOOSKI, VERMONT January 20, 2012 — Taylor Associates, producers of Reading Plus®, are pleased to announce that Dr. P. David Pearson has been named chairman of an International Reading Association panel of expert researchers “who will collaborate with the IRA board and staff to establish informed positions on research and policy issues of urgent importance to the literacy community.” The IRA stated the panel will “identify critical literacy issues and respond to them with core research findings.” These findings will be presented to policymakers, government officials, and educators.

“The Reading Plus® team congratulates David Pearson on his new chairmanship,” said Mark Taylor, CEO of Taylor Associates. “David is an internationally known literacy scholar who is universally respected. We are delighted that he is a member of our Advisory Board, and that his expertise on literacy research has shaped the pedagogy of our reading program.”

Dr. Pearson, a noted professor who has written extensively on literacy topics, said he wants his new panel “to make sure that our most trusted research is used to improve professional development and classroom practice on the way to more equitable achievement for every group of students—anywhere and everywhere.”

The IRA’s landmark literacy panel will include 16 experts from academia across the country. Another appointee, Dr. John Guthrie of the University of Maryland, is also a member of the Reading Plus® Advisory Board.

Award-winning Reading Plus®, the leading silent reading intervention, is a web-based program that uses innovative technology to provide individualized scaffolded silent reading practice for students in primary and secondary schools as well as at the post-secondary level.

To learn more about the IRA’s new literacy research panel, visit www.reading.org.