March 14, 2012
Toni-Ann Barone, Reading Specialist for at-risk children at the
Plaza Elementary School in Baldwin, New York, is the University’s
first recipient of the Ph.D. in Literacy from the Department of
Human Services and Counseling, The School of Education. She
passed her doctoral dissertation oral defense on February
9th, 2012 under the mentorship of Dr. Richard
Sinatra. Dr. Barone’s topic was “The Immediate and Long Term
Impact of a Summer Literacy Approach on Writing Performance and
Self-Perception of Writing of Urban Housing Authority
Children”. She found that after a summer-intensive writing
program, 250 beginning fifth trough seventh graders perceived that
they significantly improved in writing as they responded to an
item, “I think I’m a good writer” on a writer self perception
scale. After a thorough review of the literature, Dr. Barone
also believes that she is the first researcher to investigate the
use of the Writer Self-Perception Scale as it relates to actual
writing performance with low socio-economic status students.