Teaching and Teacher Education 24 (2008) 1083–1097 Preparing teachers to remediate reading disabilities in high school: What is needed for effective professional development? Maureen W. Lovett a,b,Ã , Le´a Lacerenza a,c , Maria De Palma a , Nancy J. Benson a , Karen A. Steinbach a , Jan C. Frijters a,d a The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ont., Canada b University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada c Toronto Catholic District School Board, Toronto, Ont., Canada d Brock University, St. Catharines, Ont., Canada Received 5 May 2006; received in revised form 14 September 2007; accepted 25 October 2007 Abstract In this paper, we ask what constitutes effective professional development for teachers faced with struggling readers in high school. Metacognitive teacher training, instructional coaching, mentorship, and collaborative learning are considered. We describe a professional development model preparing high school teachers to teach PHAST PACES, a remedial reading program. A metacognitive teaching style and specific skills for teaching comprehension and decoding strategies were emphasized. Teachers provided high positive ratings regarding the usefulness of the training, and attributed to the training an increased sense of efficacy in improving student outcomes and understanding reading problems. A comparison of student outcomes for teachers’ first and subsequent classes suggested that the professional development model promotes better outcomes on more complex skills. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: High school students; Reading difficulties; Remedial reading; Reading strategies; Program development; Teaching models 1. Introduction Approximately two-thirds of all US students with disabilities scored below the basic level in reading in the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Regardless of whatever special services they were receiving, 71% of students with disabil- ities in 4th grade, 68% in 8th grade, and 68% in 12th grade read below the basic level and could not understand the NAEP text materials (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). Some 2.3 million US students are specifically identified with a reading disability (RD), and struggling readers represent 80% of American students with learning disabilities (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Despite the high prevalence of reading problems and learning disabilities, a national survey of teachers in US public schools revealed major concerns about how to address the needs of disabled students in the classroom. Only 32% of teachers whose classes included students with disabilities felt well-prepared to address their academic needs (US Department of Education: National Center for ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2007.10.005 Ã Corresponding author. The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ont., Canada. Tel.: +1 416 813 6319; fax: +1 416 813 6126. E-mail address: mwl@sickkids.ca (M.W. Lovett).