A former middle school teacher and author of Reading Social Studies, Kylene Beers has turned her commitment to helping struggling readers into the major focus of her research, writing, speaking, and teaching. Her Reading Social Studies text serves as a guide to help students develop content-area reading skills. She is the former editor for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) literacy journal Voices from the Middle and has also served as NCTE president. Additional published works include When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do (Heinemann, 2002).