Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English Committee

Function: To investigate and make recommendations to counteract racism and racial bias in teaching materials, methods, and programs for English and language arts; to develop guidelines for Teacher Quality for Educators who Teach Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students, with careful documentation from the research base for your recommendations, based upon the NCTE 2004 policy document concerning Teacher Quality; to advise the NCTE executive committee with recommendations for professional development of inservice and preservice teachers regarding teaching linguistically and culturally diverse students, with the assistance of appropriate scholars and experts, as well as careful documentation from the research base for your recommendations; to create principles for assessment for linguistically and culturally diverse students, with the assistance of appropriate scholars and experts and careful documentation from the research base for your recommendations, based upon the 2004 NCTE framing statements on assessment; to participate in developing NCTE as the professional home for conversations about English Language Learners in English-dominant classrooms; and to identify the research base for your recommendations, and to recommend research on matters for which you can identify no research base.

What major actions or projects have been completed by your group since July 1, 2006?

We began work on revising the description and background information about the committee and identified ways to collaborate with additional committees and commissions to support partnerships and a unified voice.  The committee prepared and submitted the following: "Statement on Anti-Racism to Support Student Teaching and Learning".  The statement was approved and issued by NCTE in February 2007. 

What projects, initiatives, or studies are “in progress” at this time?

Currently, we are discussing ways to support students of Middle Eastern descent in U.S. learning institutions.  Moreover, we have begun discussion about renaming the committee to recognize our anti-racism efforts.  For example, we have considered recommending the following name:  Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English.  We believe that this will be both sound and productive to reflect our purpose, goals, and deliberations as a committee.

Strategic Governance: Over the past three years, the NCTE Executive Committee has established outcomes and priorities relating to these key topics in our field: Teacher Quality, Adolescent Literacy, Assessment, Writing, Multimodal Literacy and Technology, Research and Teaching , English Language Learners, and Professional Development . Currently, they are investigating how to expand access to reading research, how NCTE can help close the “achievement gap” in English language arts, and other audiences that NCTE could be serving. Does your group have research findings or suggestions to contribute that are relevant to on-going work on these strategic governance topics?

We are currently discussing these key topics via electronic mail and plan to have more specific recommendations following our November 2007 meeting and in early 2008.

R. Joseph Rodriguez, Chair