A study to learn if a special course on teaching composition to high school students would affect the classroom competence of prospective English teachers was conducted. An experimental group of 36 future English teachers at DePaul University was compared with a control group of 36 similar students at Loyola University, a school with a parallel English Education program. The independent variable was the special composition course taught at DePaul. The two test instruments developed to measure the effect of the special course were the "Examination in English Composition for Secondary School English Teachers" and the "Scale for Rating Teaching of English Composition." Although the tests revealed no statistically significant performance differences between the two groups, the expeimental group, which was below the control group in English grade point total, did as well as its counterpart. The equal test scores apparently resulted from the small sample involved and the complexities of administrative arrangements for the experiment. Since the experimental group improved more than the control group, the inference is that a special course on teaching English composition in the high school classroom would be beneficial for the prospective English teacher. (Author/MP)