Timothy Shanahan
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Founding Director, UIC Center for Literacy
Curriculum & Instruction
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About
Timothy Shanahan was director of reading for the Chicago Public Schools, and a Visiting Research Professor at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is author/editor of more than 300 publications including the book, Leveled Reading, Leveled Lives (Harvard Education Press, 2025). His research emphasizes the connections between learning to read and learning to write, literacy in the disciplines, and improvement of reading achievement. He is recognized as one of the top 2% of scientists in the world, according to a study published by Stanford University scholars (Ioannidis, Boyack, & Baas, 2020).
Professor Shanahan is past president of the International Literacy Association. He served on the Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy under Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. Shanahan took a leadership role on the National Reading Panel (NRP), convened by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the request of Congress to evaluate research on methods for teaching reading. He chaired two other federal research review panels: National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, and the National Early Literacy Panel, and was a member of the English Language Arts Work Team for the Common Core State Standards.
Shanahan received the William S. Gray Citation for Lifetime Achievement and the Albert J. Harris Award for outstanding research on reading disability from the International Literacy Association (ILA), the P. David Pearson Award for Scholarly Impact from the Literacy Research Association (LRA), the Milton D. Jacobson Readability Research Award, the Amoco Award for Outstanding Teaching and the University of Delaware’s Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement. In 2009, he was selected as researcher of the year at the University of Illinois at Chicago (Social Sciences/Humanities). He co-developed Project FLAME, a family literacy program for Latino immigrants, which received an Academic Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Education, and his article, “The Common Core Ate My Baby” received the Distinguished Achievement Award for Learned Article from the Association of Educational Publications (2013). His research and testimony are cited in federal case law (Memisovski v. Maram, No. 92 C 1982, lauded by the American Academy of Pediatrics as “an enormous victory” for children’s health care). His research and development projects attracted approximately $6 million in funding from government agencies and the philanthropic community. He was inducted to the Reading Hall of Fame in 2007 and is a former first-grade teacher. For more information, visit his website: www.shanahanonliteracy.com
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60 E Monroe St.
Unit 6001
Chicago, IL 60603