Jan Richardson

Jan Richardson, Ph.D., is an educational consultant and leading expert in guided reading whose work has focused on improving classroom reading instruction for students in kindergarten through high school. A former K–12 classroom teacher, she has also served as a reading specialist, Reading Recovery teacher leader, staff developer, and university professor, and has trained thousands of teachers through professional development and classroom demonstrations across the United States and Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of South Florida and works from Wisconsin.

Richardson is the best-selling author of The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading and has written or coauthored several influential resources, including The Next Step Forward in Reading Intervention, The Next Step Forward in Running Records, The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics, and The Guided Reading Teacher’s Companion, as well as Next Step Guided Reading Assessment and the Literacy Footprints Guided Reading System. Her research-based frameworks, including the small-group intervention program RISE (Reading that Inspires Students to Excel), are widely used by educators and have made her a sought-after keynote speaker at national and international reading conferences.