The completion of my recent applied dissertation was one of the most
challenging personal goals I have ever pursued. I would never have
completed it without the unfailing guidance of many friends and fellow
educators along the way. The problem I addressed was the dramatic decline in
reading and reading test scores for the U.S. youth at the national, state, and
local school district levels during the last 2 decades. The nation’s literacy
problem extends beyond classroom and school walls and has become an issue
of how a county can function properly when its citizens cannot accurately read
the written word.