Describes how the College Board, under the auspices of the Equality Project, is collaborating with school and college educators to bring about school reform, with special attention given to the writing component of the curriculum. (HOD)

Surveys the textbook censorship picture over the past decade with particular attention to the activities of Tim LaHaye and Norma and Mel Gabler. Suggests 10 steps teachers can take to try and protect controversial texts from censorship. (RBW)

Offers a rationale that can be used to defend the assignment of Alice Walker's controversial novel for class reading. Indicates four issues that might evoke calls for censorship: (1) subject matter, (2) vocabulary, (3) grammar, and (4) the epistolary form of the work. (RBW)

Cautions that art has influence and that literature will change the way people think. Suggests that if vulgar and obscene literature is dignified by giving it a place in the classroom, it degrades the literary classics and debases their message. (RBW)

Looks at English departments, English curricula, and the activities of professional organizations in the field, and concludes that bureaucracies, with their vested interest in the status quo, prevent effective action against a range of major problems faced by English teachers. (RBW)

Data from 136 junior high school classes were analyzed to investigate how student behavior, student achievement, and teacher behavior all related to student ability levels in class composition. Both higher ability students and lower ability students achieved better in higher ability classes. Class composition had more impact on lower ability…

Notes the advantages grade 10 English students found in using a word processor: (1) they spend more time reworking text, (2) they are better able to determine needed change, (3) they find the revision process less arduous, and (4) they seem to find it easier to develop a sense of audience. (MM)

ACT Information Brief 2004-1 showed that retention and cumulative first-year college GPA are related to ACT Composite scores. Overall achievement, as measured by cumulative first-year college GPA, is strongly related to high school preparation, as measured by ACT Composite score, for students who return for a second year of college. This brief…

English language learners (ELLs) were once expected to learn English before they learned critical content needed to succeed in school, but this is longer true, because now federal education laws require that ELLs be held to the same academic standards as other students. There are, however, requirements to assess and document progress on tests of…

A study examined 3 grammar teaching methods to understand why some methods may carry over into writing better than others. E. Bialystok and E. B. Ryan's (1985) metacognitive model of language skills was adapted to plot traditional grammar, sentence combining, and the functional/inductive approach according to the amount of analyzed knowledge and…

Providing help to teachers and schools attempting to achieve the vision of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act (KERA) which shifts the focus of instruction to student use and application of knowledge, this paper presents a sample course outline as a starting point for course development. The paper begins with one example of a course description…

This paper constructs a history of empowerment and critical pedagogies in U.S. composition studies, building on the idea that critical pedagogies arise out of social constructs and exigencies, and they are not divorced from the realities of students' academic concerns and growths. Primary sources for the paper are table of contents pages in…

The implementation of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) began in English primary schools at the start of the autumn term, 1998. It was intended to bring about "a dramatic improvement in literacy standards," so that, by 2002, 80% of all 11 year olds should reach level 4 in English at the end of Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests.…

The implementation of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) began in English primary schools at the start of the autumn term, 1998. It was intended to bring about "a dramatic improvement in literacy standards," so that, by 2002, 80% of all 11 year olds should reach level 4 in English at the end of Key Stage 2 national curriculum tests.…

This 18th volume of "Classroom Notes Plus" contains descriptions of original, unpublished teaching practices, or adapted ideas. Under the Ideas from the Classroom section, the August 2000 issue contains the following materials: "The Thought Pot" (Andrew R. West); "Seeing Is Reading: 'The Hollow Men'" (James Penha);…