This book addresses crucial and controversial questions facing today's reading scholars, educators, and professionals. Demonstrating the diverse, and often divisive, opinions that characterize the field, leading contributors including—Isabel L. Beck, Vivian L. Gadsden, Taffy E. Raphael, Jane Hansen, Peter Afflerbach, P. David Pearson, Michael Pressley, Richard Anderson, and Marilyn Jager Adams—offer their insights and expertise on such issues as the phonics/whole language debate, the state of reading comprehension instruction, the validity of and need for standards and assessment, effective methods of teacher preparation, and family literacy.