About

Dennis S. Davis is a Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at NC State College of Education. His teaching, research, and professional development activities focus on upper-elementary literacy instruction, with an emphasis on reading comprehension, assessment, and intervention supports for students experiencing difficulties in reading. His primary goal as a researcher and teacher educator is to help educators learn to teach reading comprehension effectively, drawing on the best evidence available. Dennis is affiliated with the elementary education undergraduate program and the Literacy and English Language Arts (LELA) PhD concentration, and he coordinates the M.Ed. concentration in Reading Education. He directs the Wolfpack Readers program, which offers direct tutoring services to children, hands-on intervention training for graduate students, and mentorship opportunities for undergraduates. His recent courses focus on assessment practices in elementary classrooms, intervention and diagnostic assessment in reading, and language and cognition in the reading brain.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Mathematics education
• Linguistics
• Sociology
• Communication
• Multimedia
• World Wide Web

Selected publications

• Usability of a Reading Intervention for Upper-Elementary English Learners: Building Reading Comprehension Through Knowledge, Language, and Structured Inquiry (K.L.I.)

  AERA Open · 2025-03-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  To accelerate literacy learning for upper-elementary multilingual children designated as English learners (ML-ELs), teachers need instructional tools that create sustained opportunities for reading and discussing informational texts, examining the language encountered in those texts, and building new content knowledge. To address this need, we developed a multicomponent small-group intervention to build ML-ELs’ reading comprehension by emphasizing knowledge, language, and structured inquiry (K.L.I.). We describe our iterative design process and report findings related to usability, which we argue is an essential but often unreported step in examining the internal logic of new interventions. Using design-based research, we developed K.L.I. through repeated design-implement-observe-revise cycles in collaboration with 15 teachers over 2 years. We analyzed teacher interviews and ratings of lessons implemented during afterschool supplemental instruction. Findings suggest pressure points and enhancing factors affecting the usability of K.L.I. These findings can inform future efforts to design and implement similar multicomponent reading comprehension interventions.

  PublisherDOI

• Barriers to Implementation and Strategies for Improvements in Elementary School Tiered Reading Intervention Processes

  Reading & Writing Quarterly · 2025-03-27 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• 2025 International Literacy Association's Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan Outstanding Dissertation Award

  Reading Research Quarterly · 2025-11-06

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  My dissertation started with a question from practice that almost any adult who works with a young writer will hear– “I'm done!” I wanted to understand which students stop writing early and what might help them persist through a challenging task like writing. I examined this within the context of a 15-min writing assessment of 4th and 5th grade students. I focused on informational writing, in which students first read an article about a scientific topic that was likely unfamiliar to them. The writing prompt asked them to teach somebody about the topic that they had just read about. This was important in my decision to study the informational genre. Asking students to “teach” someone about the topic necessitates some form of awareness of the audience and restructuring of content, what Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) call “knowledge transformation.” I was also interested in how setting a goal through developing a structured plan was related to when students stopped writing. While I was observing this phenomenon in schools, I worked with a team as a co-author on the Writing Architect, a computer-based writing assessment developed to provide teachers with fine-grained data directly tied to the malleable components of writing that can be addressed through instruction (Truckenmiller et al. 2025). As part of that, I was working on a longitudinal study that looked at student writing across a school year. I realized I could think similarly about student writing behavior on a very small scale. Instead of tracking the number of words students wrote across a school year, I could track the number of words they wrote across a single 15-min writing task and use that to detect when students tend to stop writing. In the literature, these students have been described as the “early terminators” (Graham 1990; Thomas et al. 1987). I wanted to see if I could replicate these common behavioral observations with my longitudinal approach to statistical modeling. I also worked with an amazing team of graduate and undergraduate students during this project. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Toward an equitable implementation of the science of reading: K-5 teachers' sensemaking and support needs

  Teaching and Teacher Education · 2025-11-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  This study investigates how elementary teachers conceptualize and navigate equitable implementation of the Science of Reading (SoR) amid U.S. state-mandated reforms. Drawing on open-ended survey responses ( n = 275) and interviews ( n = 14), we examine teachers' understanding of equity, multilevel barriers and enablers across individual, school, and system contexts, and support needs for responsive instruction. Findings reveal equitable SoR implementation as an adaptive, context-sensitive practice shaped by differentiation, systematic instruction, and institutional conditions. Teachers emphasized the importance of practice-embedded professional development, interdisciplinary collaboration, and coherent systemic support. The study extends sensemaking theory by demonstrating how institutional conditions shape teachers' interpretive work during high-stakes literacy reform and showing that principled adaptation can constitute fidelity to equity goals. Beyond the U.S. context, the findings contribute conceptual and empirical resources to international scholarship on literacy reform implementation, teacher sensemaking, and the relationship between standardization and equity as SoR-aligned mandates proliferate globally. • Teachers view equity in the Science of Reading as adaptive and context-sensitive. • Differentiation and institutional support shape equitable reading implementation. • Multilevel barriers constrain, while collaboration enables, responsive literacy. • Teachers seek practice-based professional development and interdisciplinary support. • Study advances understanding of teachers as sensemakers in literacy reform.

  PublisherDOI

• Not Magic but Manageable: Generative <scp>AI</scp> and Instructional Decision‐Making in Structured Reading Intervention

  The Reading Teacher · 2025-11-30

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  ABSTRACT Planning reading interventions often calls for working within a research‐aligned program while tailoring instruction for student needs. We explored how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can support educators in reading intervention planning by examining how two novice teachers in a university‐based intervention program used GenAI tools to generate materials, customize texts, and refine lessons. Using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and a sociocognitive lens, we examined how teachers' use of GenAI evolved from basic prompting to strategic pedagogical reasoning. Planning became a space for professional learning, where tutors honed content and pedagogical understanding, refined decision‐making, and grew more confident in instructional adaptation. When embedded in collaborative systems, GenAI use surfaced instructional judgment and supported responsive adaptation, though it did not replace the need for human oversight. We offer implications for teacher educators, interventionists, and school leaders seeking to integrate GenAI in ways that strengthen pedagogical growth and instructional responsiveness.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evaluating the Impact of the Knowledge, Language, and Structured Inquiry (K.L.I.) Intervention on Reading Comprehension in Upper Elementary Multilingual English Learners

  The Journal of Experimental Education · 2025-11-20

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Feasibility of the Knowledge, Language, and Inquiry (K.L.I.) intervention for multilingual English learners

  The Journal of Educational Research · 2025-01-09 · 1 citations

  article

  This study evaluated the feasibility of the Knowledge, Language, and Inquiry (K.L.I.) intervention, designed to support Grades 3–5 multilingual students classified as English learners (ML-ELs) in building content knowledge, language skills, and reading comprehension through inquiry-based small-group instruction. Feasibility was examined across five dimensions—acceptability, practicality, integration, implementation fidelity, and effectiveness—using teacher interviews, ratings, lesson observations, and student and teacher learning outcome assessments. Findings suggest that the intervention was generally well-received by teachers, with structured lesson plans and resources facilitating implementation. Teachers demonstrated increased knowledge in reading instruction and the intervention following professional development, and students showed gains in vocabulary, text structure awareness, and topic-specific knowledge. However, time constraints during standardized testing periods limited consistent implementation. These findings inform the refinement of the K.L.I. intervention for broader application, emphasizing the need to address contextual challenges and conduct future evaluations to support its larger-scale implementation and improve ML-ELs’ literacy outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Elementary School Teachers’ Enactment of a Content Literacy Curriculum in a Virtual Tutoring Program for Multilingual Students

  Education Sciences · 2024-07-20

  articleOpen access

  This study evaluated the usability of a content literacy curriculum designed for graduate students’ practicum experience in a virtual after-school tutoring program for U.S. third-grade multilingual students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored teacher perceptions of the successes and challenges encountered while implementing the curriculum. This study involved 12 elementary school teachers enrolled in a graduate school professional development program to fulfill their practicum requirements. The curriculum emphasized a thematic unit that utilized conceptually coherent texts across science and social studies, comprehension monitoring, academic vocabulary network building, and academic conversation. An analysis of teachers’ written reflections revealed that a significant success was the enhancement of students’ engagement in learning concepts and building vocabulary through high-interest informational texts. Teachers also recognized critical teaching moments that underscored the importance of developing interconnected knowledge structures for effective text comprehension and learning. However, the study identified a need for targeted and individualized scaffolding to support students with reading comprehension challenges, making complex texts more accessible. Additionally, the shift to remote teaching necessitated the development of a new pedagogical model for professional development to effectively address the evolving needs of teachers in virtual learning environments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Correction to: What do upper‑elementary and middle school teachers know about the processes of text comprehension?

  Reading and Writing · 2022-05-10

  articleOpen access1st author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What do upper-elementary and middle school teachers know about the processes of text comprehension?

  Reading and Writing · 2022-03-05 · 1 citations

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Virginia J. Goatley

  9 shared

• Misty Sailors

  Wested

  9 shared

• Miriam Martínez

  8 shared

• Dot McElhone

  8 shared

• F. Blake Tenore

  7 shared

• Christina Treviño

  6 shared

• Jill S. Jones

  North Carolina State University

  6 shared

• Robyn DeIaco

  North Carolina State University

  5 shared

Awards & honors

• 2025 International Literacy Association's Timothy and Cynthi…