Standing Committee on Research

Function: To promote interest in research and research findings; to advise the Executive Committee and other Council groups on matters related to research; to advise the editors of Research in the Teaching of English; and to continue the research monograph series.

The Committee fulfilled its objectives for the annual meeting. NCTE program has a full array of research sessions and the Convention planning process went smoothly. Submissions are up for RTE and the Committee is pleased with the direction the journal has taken under its current editors. The judging of the Promising Researcher Award went smoothly. Committee members (Larkin, Stevens, and Rex) volunteered to help Randy Bomer with the Council's initiatives and to work with Anne Gere and the policy office.

The Committee expressed concern about the representation of research on the NCTE Webpage. The SCR is not featured and research articles from RTE are not made available. Further the Committee would like to see the PRA winners featured prominently on the web. Anne Gere noted that NCTE has denied online access to RTE articles on policy Web site and the Committee strongly supported making articles more accessible.

The second issue has to do with the Convention planning process. This past year Freedman and DiPardo attended the NCTE Convention planning meeting. DiPardo came as a volunteer and with special permission. The program planning process went smoothly and the entire research strand of the program was put in place during the planning meeting. The Committee is requesting the institutionalization of a process that includes two representatives at the planning so that the task can be completed in a timely and efficient manner. We are pleased, however, that two members have been approved for the 2007 planning meeting and that institutionalization of this process is underway. This is particularly important since the planners not only review proposals but also put together and schedule the panels.

In the coming months the committee will review convention proposals and judge the PRA submissions and decide on award winners. Members also will work on the Council initiatives with Bomer and Gere.

Members present: Sarah Warshauer Freedman (Ch.), Joel Dworin, Colette Dauite, Maisha Tulivu Fisher, Martin Nystrand Caroline Clark, Joanne Larson, Deborah Hicks, Lisa Patel Stevens, and Cynthia Brock. Melanie Sperling & Anne DiPardo, Ex Officio.

Also joining SCR later: Randy Bomer, outgoing NCTE President and incoming liaison to the EC, Kyoto Sato, incoming NCTE President, and Anne Ruggles Gere, Director of The Squire Office for Policy Research in English Language Arts.

Sarah Freedman, Chair