Alexandra Shelton is an assistant professor of special education at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. Her research focuses on improving literacy outcomes for secondary students with disabilities and reading difficulties—particularly students from ethnically, racially, and linguistically marginalized backgrounds—via evidence-based literacy instruction and intervention and teacher professional development and coaching. Alexandra Shelton has directed three federally funded grants that aim to provide professional development and systematic coaching to middle school teachers to promote their use of evidence-based literacy practices. Her publications appear in Review of Educational Research, Teacher Education and Special Education, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Contemporary Educational Psychology, and Intervention in School and Clinic.

Shelton holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Maryland. Before earning her doctorate, she was a high school special education teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools, where she served students with and without disabilities in English language arts, reading, math, and science.

Keywords: Reading and literacy; K-12 education; English learners; disability; special education.