Rate My Professor Carolyn Carlson

Carolyn Carlson is a Professor in the Department of Education within Washburn University’s School of Applied Studies. She earned her B.A. in Japanese, M.S. in Literacy Education, Ph.D. in Literacy Education, and J.D. in Law from the University of Kansas, with degrees conferred in 1999, 2003, 2006, and separately for the J.D. Joining Washburn University in 2007 as an Assistant Professor, she progressed to Associate Professor and then full Professor. Carlson teaches undergraduate and graduate courses including The Science of Reading I and II, Literacy and ESOL Instructional Practices, Teaching Reading in the Content Areas, Assessment Procedures in Reading, Literature for Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults, Language Development and Assessment, and education research courses. Her instructional focus emphasizes evidence-based literacy practices, dyslexia instruction, ESOL strategies, and reading specialist preparation.

Carlson’s research specializations include literacy education, proactive censorship and book bans in public schools, dyslexia simulations for preservice teachers, adolescent literacy’s role in dropout prevention and economic development, teacher retention under principal leadership, and the impacts of Common Core State Standards on literacy instruction. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to edited volumes. Key publications include “An Exploratory Investigation into the Relationship between Text Messaging and Spelling” (New England Reading Association Journal, 2007, 60 citations), “The Profession that Eats its Young: The Effect of Principal Leadership on the Survival Rate of Teachers” (Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2012, 54 citations), “Dropout Factories and the Vaccination Approach: The Impact of the Dropout Rate on the Economy and the Need for Effective Literacy Instruction” (SRATE Journal, 2014, 25 citations), “The Fear of Retaliation: Proactive Censorship by Public School Librarians” (Michigan Reading Journal, 2020), “Fight, Flight, Freeze: The Impact of a Dyslexia Simulation on Preservice Teachers” (The Advocate, 2024), and “These Books Matter: A Banned Books Week Celebration” (Kansas English, 2024). Additional works cover topics like the fundamental right to literacy, affirmative action, and historical figures in African American activism. Carlson has presented at national and international conferences, testified before the Kansas Senate Education Committee on literacy legislation in 2026, and contributed to initiatives like the Blueprint for Literacy and the Center for Literacy. She received Washburn University Employee Recognition in 2013.