Susan Smartt

Susan M. Smartt, Ph.D., is a literacy researcher, consultant, and author whose work focuses on improving teacher preparation in reading and ensuring that all children learn to read. She is a former senior research associate at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, where her research, writing, and teaching emphasized aligning reading instruction with the science of reading and strengthening the quality of reading instruction in schools. Earlier in her career, she owned and directed a reading clinic for more than 20 years, providing comprehensive psychoeducational and dyslexia assessments and tutoring, and she has served as a classroom teacher, reading coach, reading specialist, and principal.

Smartt is coauthor of Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Interventions, a widely used K–6 planning guide that links reading assessments with Tier 1, 2, and 3 interventions and is aligned with the National Reading Panel’s “big five” components of reading. An early contributor to the development of the LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) professional development program, she has worked nationally with state departments, teacher preparation programs, and school districts on Response to Intervention initiatives, data-informed instruction, and implementation of scientifically based literacy programs, and she continues to tutor and advocate for students with dyslexia.