Barbara Laster is a researcher, author, and teacher. From 1974-1994, she was a reading teacher in rural Florida, the Appalachian region of Ohio, a small town in Massachusetts, and multiple secondary schools in Northern Virginia, USA. As a Professor of Education for the last 26 years, she has primarily taught teachers to become reading specialists. Currently, Dr. Laster teaches courses on the cultural contexts of literacy, reading disabilities, literacy assessment and instruction, and other topics in education. Among her publications are topics of differentiated instruction, emergent and developing writers, reading comprehension, teacher development, digital literacies, family literacy, reading clinics, and religious diversity in public school settings. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles or book chapters in such publications as English Journal, The Reading Teachers, Educational Leadership, and the Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension. Besides her work with teachers across the United States, Dr. Laster has worked with teachers in Guatemala, Egypt, Greece, and Iceland.
