UNC School of Education

Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Chief Academic Officer and Professor of Literacy

T 919.966.7000
F 919.962.1533
jfitzger@email.unc.edu

101A Peabody Hall
CB 3500

Jill Fitzgerald is interim dean and professor of literacy in the School of Education. A former reading specialist and first-through-third-grade teacher, she has taught in classrooms as diverse as a city school in upstate New York, a school in a rural Ohio district and an Appalachian mountain school in West Virginia. At UNC-Chapel Hill since 1979, she has taught courses in literacy, research, and statistics for undergraduate and graduate students. Her scholarly interests focus on reading and writing processes, particularly in relation to multilingual learners' literacy growth.

She has been an invited speaker at national and international research and professional conferences. Fitzgerald won the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Review of Research Award and, with George Noblit, the International Reading Association's Dina Feitelson Award for Research.

She currently serves on editorial boards for several national and international research journals, including Journal of Educational Psychology, Reading Research Quarterly, Review of Educational Research, and Contemporary Educational Psychology. She has served extensively on national and international literacy and educational associations through committee work and been a panelist for federal agencies such as the National Child Health Department of the National Institutes for Health and the Institute for Education Sciences.

• Ph.D. 1979 - State University of New York at Buffalo, Research and Evaluation in Reading
• M.S. 1973 - State University College of New York at Cortland, Elementary Education
• B.A. 1968 - Harpur College, SUNY at Binghamton, NY, General Literature

• Literacy, Especially Emergent Literacy
• Early School Literacy
• Bilingual Literacy
• Research Overview

• Literacy Studies
• Early Childhood Family & Literacy
• Child Development and Family Studies

• Cunningham, J. W. & Fitzgerald, J. (1996). Epistemology and reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 31, 36-60. Article named as one of the most outstanding research contributions in the history of literacy research: Readence, J. E. (2002, November 1). Fond memories, lessons learned, and trends in literacy research: An editor's retrospective. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the College Reading Association, Philadelphia, PA.
• 2003-present, Mentor Faculty, Center for Developmental Science, UNC-CH
• 2000, International Reading Association Dina Feitelson Award for Outstanding Research (with George Noblit). aInvited Research Mentor for the National Reading Conference Mentorship Project (Area, Literacy and Language Diversity).
• 1998, American Educational Research Association Award for Outstanding Review of Research.
• 1998-2003, Associate Editor, Reading and Writing Quarterly.
• 1997, State University of New York at Buffalo, Graduate School of Education, Distinguished Alumni Award.
• 1996, Cameo appearance, William Friday's N.C. People television show.
• 1996, Award for Outstanding Research, Phi Delta Kappa, Carolina Chapter (with Jim Cunningham).

• Young Latino Children's Literate Development in Relation to Oral Language, substudy of Evaluation of NC Reading Excellence Act, NC Department of Public Instruction
• A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Different Reading Intervention Structures upon Students' Long-Term Growth in Reading Processes and Achievements, substudy of Evaluation of NC Reading Excellence Act, NC Department of Public Instruction

• 2002-2004, Member, Advisory Board for the U.S. Department of Education SBIR Phase II contract, On-Line Resources for Teaching Higher-Order Reading and Comprehension Skills, University of Minnesota.
• 2001-2003, AERA Committee for the Research Review Award.
• 2000-present, Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Contemporary Educational Psychology.
• 2001, Advisory Panel, Planning meeting for a National Research Council Review of Reading Research with English Language Learners, Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC.
• 2001, Panelist, Review Training for all Teachers Proposals to the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs, Office of Education.
• 2000-2001, Board member, New Standards for English Language Arts for English-Language Learners.
• 2000-2001, Reviewer, National Institute for Child Health Development, for research proposals for addressing young English-language learners' literacy development, Washington, DC.
• 2000, Reviewer, New Standards for English Language Arts for English-Language Learners.
• 2000, Site Reviewer, National Institute for Child Health Development, for research proposal for addressing young English-language learners' literacy development.
• 2000, Reviewer, Spencer Postdoctoral grant proposal.
• 2000, "Advisor" for Spencer Foundation, Winter, 1999 Forum for Dissertation Fellows.

Fitzgerald, J., & Amendum, S. (2007). What is sound writing instruction for multilingual learners? In S. Graham, C. MacArthur, & J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Best practices in writing instruction. New York: Guildford.

Graves, M. F., & Fitzgerald, J. (2006). Effective vocabulary instruction for English-language learners. In C. C. Block & J. N. Mangieri (Eds.), The vocabulary-enriched classroom: Practices for improving the reading performance of all students in grades 3 and up (pp. 118-137). New York: Scholastic.

Alvermann, D., Fitzgerald, J., & Simpson, M. (2006). Research in teaching and learning in reading. P. Alexander & P. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology. New York: Guilford.

Fitzgerald, J. (2006). Multilingual Writing. Handbook of writing research. New York: Guilford.

McArthur, C., Graham, S., & Fitzgerald, J. (Eds.) (2006). Handbook of writing research. New York: Guilford.

Fitzgerald, J., & Graves, M. (2004). Scaffolded reading experiences for English-language learners. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.

Fitzgerald, J. (2003). Multilingual reading theory. Reading Research Quarterly, 38, 118-122.

Fitzgerald, J., & Cunningham, J. W. (2002). Balance in teaching reading: An instructional approach based on a particular epistemological outlook. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 18, 1-12.

Billings, L., & Fitzgerald, J. (2002). Dialogic discussion and the Paedeia seminar. American Educational Research Journal, 39, 907-941.