Rebecca Barr, age 65, a professor of education at National-Louis University and a researcher and author on reading development who helped create the literary assessment tool used by public kindergarten and first grade teachers throughout Illinois, died of breast cancer on Thursday, May 29, 2003, in her Evanston home.

“Becky was deeply motivated by ideas,” said her husband Robert Dreeben. “She wanted to know how a problem had come about and what impact the first thing that happened had on subsequent events.”

Born in Albert Lea, she was the daughter of Dr. Lowell C. and Evelyn Barr. Ms. Barr grew up in Albert Lea and earned a psychology degree in 1960 from Monmouth College in Monmouth, Ill. She began focusing on how young children learn to read while earning her doctorate in educational psychology and reading at the University of Chicago, where she also received a master’s degree in reading.

“She was interested in knowing how schooling worked.” said her husband, “particularly the beginning years of a child’s education. Since our whole system of learning is based on reading, that became the heart of the story for her.”

Ms. Barr met her husband in 1968 soon after they both joined the faculty of University of Chicago. Mr. Dreeben is a retired professor of sociology in education. They married in 1970 and later settled in Evanston.

Elected to the International Reading Association’s Hall of Fame in 1995, Ms. Barr conducted research for more than 30 years on classroom organization and the teaching of reading. She also wrote or co-wrote more than 50 articles and reviews for a number of scholarly journals; co-authored three books on schooling and reading diagnosis and was a co-editor of the Handbook of Reading Research.

Ms. Barr also devoted much of her time over the years to the Chicago Board of Education, working with its teachers to improve students’ reading. Ms. Barr also was a leading researcher in the development several years ago of the Illinois Snapshot of Early Literacy that was funded through the Illinois State Board of Education and is used by kindergarten and first grade teachers to assess their students’ reading abilities.

After graduating from college, Ms. Barr taught for one year with the Chicago Public Schools and then went on to become a teacher and lecturer at several universities. She joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor, later becoming a research associate.

She joined National-Louis in 1982 where under her leadership the university began four doctoral programs and she earned a reputation as an excellent teacher and mentor to doctoral students and researchers in the field of reading. Ms. Barr also was a past president of the National Reading Conference. She has lectured and consulted extensively in the U.S. and other countries.

Ms. Barr was a Fulbright Fellow in 2000 and went to India where she worked with 20 teachers there, especially in the area of reading instruction.

She loved to bike, garden, sail and travel, said her husband.

Other survivors include her sons: Thomas, Michael and Daniel; her daughters: Jane and Jill; her brother, Lowell; her sister, Constance Thompson; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. June 13, at National-Louis University’s Evanston campus, 2840 Sheridan Rd.