Reading Specialist Students Help Improve Educational Prospects
of Children, Adolescents and Adults with Reading Difficulties

Back row, left to right: Prof. Dolores Perin, Dr. Dinelia Rosa (Director of DH-CEPS), Graduate Assistant Beth Sullivan, Ann-Maria Gropp (DH-CEPS Coordinator of Reading Services), Dr. Susan Masullo.
Front row, left to right: Graduate Assistants: Kerry Johnson, Michelle Bramlett, Lelia Spears, Megan Bensley, Katie Shuman.

Students in the Reading Specialist Program are providing crucial reading assessment and intervention services to children, adolescents and adults who live in Harlem, the Bronx, and other parts ofNew York City.This work is done through a practicum conducted at Teachers College'sDeanHopeCenterfor Educational and Psychological Services (CEPS).CEPS is one of the few low-cost centers in New York City where individuals with reading difficulties can receive a thorough reading evaluation, followed by literacyinstruction designed just for them.Many of the individuals and families who attend CEPS have low income and are from minority backgrounds.Because CEPS has a sliding scale of fees, no one, even those with the lowest of incomes, is ever turned away.

The Reading Specialist Program is proud to be able to provide these sorely-needed reading services. Understandably, we usually have a waiting list, but we do our best to serve everyone who needs to improve his/ her literacy skills.Reading Specialist students work with their practicum clients at CEPS twice per week in 1-1/2 hour sessions.Any client may receive services for up to three college semesters.The center is highly accessible, remaining open all seven days of the week, and during evening hours.Because of CEPS, and the work that the Reading Specialist practitioners do within it, many New York City schoolchildren have improved their educational prospects.

It should also be emphasized that the CEPS setting provides an invaluable venue for Reading Specialists to receive excellent training as practitioners.Under the auspices of their practicum instructors and supervisors, they work as student clinicians, learning to design and provide individualized services that meet high professional standards. The Reading Specialist Program has a lifespan emphasis, and students learn to provide assessment and intervention services to clients of different ages.

CEPS runs under the leadership of Dr. Dinelia Rosa, and reading services are coordinated by Ann-Maria Gropp, a graduate of the Reading Specialist Program.Dr. Susan Masullo oversees the Reading Specialist practicum.