Timothy V. Rasinski, Ph.D. awarded high honor

Hi everyone,

I’m delighted to share the news that Tim Rasinski has been named as one of the top 2% of scholarly scientists in the world. Here’s the announcement.

Twenty-nine Kent State faculty members have been named to be in the top 2% of scientists in the world based on a recent study published by Stanford University scholars. The report, published in the PLOS Biology Journal, evaluated more than six million scientists across 22 different fields and 176 sub-fields from 1996 until 2019. The top 2% list is made up of more than 100,000 most-cited scientists who have authored at least five scientific papers.

Here are two of Tim’s responses to an interviewer’s questions.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE YOUR FIELD OF RESEARCH?

I chose to study literacy acquisition and education as we have too many children and adults in the United States who struggle in reading. Moreover, as a country we have not made much progress over the last three decades to improve literacy outcomes for children, especially children who come from less advantaged backgrounds. My research is, in a larger sense, a matter of equity for all children. Literacy, I believe, is a right, and I have chosen to invest my research and scholarly work in helping all children achieve this fundamental and critically important right.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH:

My area of research is literacy acquisition and literacy education – in particular my interest lies in students who struggle in learning to read. Research has shown that most children in the elementary grades who struggle experience difficulty in what we call the foundational reading skills –  the ability to understand and decode words in print, and the ability to read text fluently and with expression that reflects the meaning of the passage. My work has focused primarily on these areas. We have found remarkable success, through our experiences at the Kent State Reading Clinic (Camp Read-A-Lot) in helping many children achieve success in learning to read and in finding reading a valuable activity. 

 My congratulations to Tim. It’s a pleasure and privilege to know him and work with him on a growing number of books for classroom teachers, including the two upcoming titles from Scholastic, co-authored by another amazing and much honored professor (emeritus), The Ohio State’s Mary Jo Fresch.