Minutes of the
NCTE Annual Business Meeting
for the Board of Directors and Other Members of the Council

Friday, November 17, 2006
Nashville, Tennessee

The Annual Business Meeting for the Board of Directors and other Members of the Council of the National Council of Teachers of English was called to order by President Kyoko Sato at 5:30 p.m., November 17, 2006.

Platform guests included Kent Williamson, NCTE Executive Director; Kathleen Blake Yancey, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, NCTE Vice President; Erika Lindemann, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, Parliamentarian; Joanne Yatvin, Portland State University, OR, NCTE President-Elect; Randy Bomer, University of Texas-Austin, NCTE Past President; Carol Jago, Santa Monica High School, CA, NCTE Resolutions Committee Chair; Kylene Beers, Comer School Development Program, Yale University, NCTE Incoming Vice President; Jerrie Scott, University of Memphis, TN, Resolutions Committee; Jane Braunger, WestEd, Oakland, CA, Resolutions Committee Associate Chair; Kathryn Mitchell-Pierce, Wydown Middle School, Clayton, MO, Resolutions Committee; and Marilyn Valentino, Lorain County Community College, Elyria, OH, Resolutions Committee.

Nancy McHugh, CA, moved to adopt the rules for the Annual Business Meeting of the Board of Directors and Other Members of the Council; seconded by Anna Jackson, IL.  The motion CARRIED.
 
Sarah Henry, AR, moved to adopt the agenda; seconded by Maureen Rippee, CA.  The motion CARRIED.

Jay Wootten, OH, moved to dispense with the roll call of directors; seconded by Gloria Horton, AL.   The motion CARRIED.

Liz McAninch, CA, moved to dispense with a formal reading of the 2005 Minutes of the NCTE Annual Business Meeting; seconded by Jackie Swensson, CO.  The motion CARRIED.

Sue Campshaw, MN, moved to accept the posted Annual Reports; seconded by Bob Hanley, SC. The motion CARRIED.

President Sato introduced President-Elect, Joanne Yatvin, Chair of the Distinguished Service Award Selection Committee.  Yatvin introduced this year’s committee members: Shari Frost, National-Louis University, Evanston, IL; Niki Locklear, Kenton County Schools, Ft. Wright, KY; and Suzanne Miller, University of Buffalo, NY.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a person or persons, either volunteer or staff, who have exhibited valuable professional service within and outside the Council, including scholarly or academic distinction at any level; who have demonstrated distinguished use of language; and who have exhibited excellence in teaching. Yatvin announced Evelyn B. Freeman, Dean, The Ohio State University, Mansfield Campus and Executive Dean, The Ohio State University, Regional Campuses, as the 2006 Distinguished Service Award recipient.

Dr. Evelyn B. Freeman received her BA in sociology and education from Chatham College, her MA, in educational psychology from the University of Chicago, and her PhD in early and middle childhood education from The Ohio State University. She has served as Professor and Director of the School of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education at The Ohio State University, with interests in elementary teacher education, integrated language arts, and children’s literature. Her current research focuses on international children’s literature and on ways that children’s nonfiction can support content-area learning. She helped found and chaired the first NCTE Orbis Pictus Award Committee, served on the editorial board of Language Arts (1991-1998) and was the coeditor of the Journal of Children’s Literature, the official publication of the Children’s Literature Assembly (1996-2001). Currently, Freeman is President-Elect of the Children’s Literature Assembly and a member of the NCTE Editorial Board and of the Affiliate/Assembly Publication Review Committee. She has been a book-manuscript reviewer for NCTE since 1992. Dr. Freeman also served as coeditor of Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature (2001-2004), the official publication of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

At a time when global perspectives and understanding are so important, Dr. Freeman is very active in IBBY and represents the United States well as IBBY works to promote reading worldwide. Her most recent publication, with coauthor Barbara Lehman, Global Perspectives in Children’s Literature, was hailed by reviewer Kate Corby as an aid to teaching diversity and helping students and teachers “understand the common bonds between people.”

A past president and current trustee of the Ohio Council Teachers of English Language Arts, Dr. Freeman has been instrumental in shaping the teaching of reading and writing for the state of Ohio. She continues to present locally, nationally, and internationally.

In responding to the award, Dr. Freeman said, “I was truly stunned to learn that I would be receiving this award. I am deeply grateful to the National Council of Teachers of English for considering my contributions to the profession, a profession that I love dearly, worthy of this great honor. There are so many people for me to thank and so many wonderful people that I have worked with over the years, but I only have one minute, so I will be brief. I want to thank Marge Ford from the Ohio Council of Teachers of English for nominating me and all my wonderful colleagues in OCTELA with whom I have worked for more than two decades. I also want to recognize the members of the Children’s Literature Assembly who have and continue to enrich my professional life. I want to give special thanks to Sister Rosemary Winkeljohann, herself a recipient of this award and someone who attended a session I gave on nonfiction at a NCTE Spring Conference, many, many years ago.  After hearing my talk she asked if I would be interested in chairing a new elementary section committee to consider the possibility of a children’s book award that focused on nonfiction.  She began my joyous journey of work with the Orbis Pictus Award and with my work in NCTE. Again, thank you all so much for this incredible honor.”

President Sato invited Patricia Lambert Stock, Chair of the 2006 James R. Squire Award Selection Committee, to present this year’s award.

The James R. Squire Award, formerly called the NCTE Executive Committee Award, was established in 1967.  In 1999, the Executive Committee renamed the award to honor former Executive Director, James R. Squire, for his contributions to NCTE and the profession at large.  The award is given in recognition of outstanding service, not only to the stature and development of NCTE and the discipline which it represents but also to the profession of education as a whole, internationally as well as nationally.  The award—given only to an NCTE member who has had a transforming influence and has made a lasting intellectual contribution to the profession—is not an annual award.  In fact, it has been presented only ten times in the past thirty-nine years.  The award is bestowed only when selection committees, composed of past-presidents of the Council, decide that nominations in a given year warrant its presentation.
Stock explained, “This year, the Selection Committee—Julie Jensen, Leila Christenbury, Anne Ruggles Gere, and I—agreed unanimously that nominations warranted the presentation of the award.  Furthermore, we were unanimous in the recipient of the award whom we recommended to the NCTE Executive Committee. It is not just my pleasure, it is my honor to present the James R. Squire Award to Janet Emig.

With her work, Janet Emig has not only contributed to the stature and development of NCTE and transformed the discipline it represents and the profession of education as a whole, nationally and internationally, but she has also—in fact—been a founding scholar of a new field of study, a field that will soon be included in the data bases of the National Research Council, which means that finally the work of composition scholars in this country will be recognized as scholarship contributing to the field of composition studies and that what is published in books and journals in the field will make its way into reference data bases.  I mention these facts because I’ll come back to them in a minute.

Within NCTE, Janet has served in countless leadership roles, including as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and as chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. In 1992, the CCCC presented her its most prestigious Exemplar Award, an award meant to honor individuals whose contributions to scholarship, teaching, and service in composition studies represent ideal models for the field. In 2001, the Conference on English Education (CEE) created an award in Janet’s name to be presented annually to the author or authors of the most outstanding scholarship published in the journal of that inter-disciplinary field.

In 1993, NCTE’s Women in Literature and Life Assembly presented Janet with the Rewey Belle Inglis Award, named for the first woman president of the Council, which honors outstanding women in English education.  After accepting the award, Leila Christenbury recalls Janet’s turning to the audience and saying, ‘Remember the women!’  Among the many groundbreaking projects Janet spearheaded within the Council that have had a transforming impact on NCTE’s stature and influence is the development of NCTE’s Guidelines for Non-Sexist Language, a project that has made remembering the women more customary.

NCTE’s stature and influence were also enhanced and advanced when Janet chose in 1971 to publish, as number 13 in a series of research reports sponsored by the Council’s then Committee on Research, a groundbreaking report that is widely credited with launching a body of case-study research of students’ composing processes that has revolutionized the teaching of writing in this country and beyond. I am speaking, of course, of Janet’s 1971 monograph, The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders.

Within and beyond NCTE, Janet Emig has been recognized and honored as a transforming scholar in English education and the profession of education, and not just for her study of eight twelfth-graders as they composed what she called reflexive and extensive texts—although, had she never done another thing, that study would have secured her status as a transforming scholar.  In fact, based on the body of her published scholarship, Janet is recognized as more than a transforming scholar. In the many outstanding histories of the young, multi-disciplinary field of composition studies, Janet Emig is acknowledged to be one of the field’s founding scholars.  Her work is credited with inspiring the composing process movement in the teaching of writing; the writing-as-a-way-of-learning movement; the writing-across-the-curriculum movement; the development of phenomenological, ethnographic, and case-study methodologies in literacy and language learning research; and with advancing feminist principles and documenting women’s experience in American composition and rhetoric.  In 1983, the Modern Language Association recognized these remarkable contributions when it presented Janet the Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize for The Web of Meaning, a collection of eleven of her most influential essays and talks on writing, teaching, learning, and thinking, edited by Dixie Goswami and Maureen Butler.

Janet’s most frequently cited publications are

• her 1971 monograph, The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders, credited with launching the process movement in writing instruction and naturalistic research in composition studies;
• her 1977 article, “Writing as a Mode of Learning” credited with inspiring the writing-as-a-way-of-learning and writing-across-the-curriculum movements; 
• her argument for case-study research in the 1990 Handbook on Research in the Teaching of the English Language Arts.

Together with her other publications, Janet’s work has been cited (as of my last week’s search of digital data bases) a total of 75,000 times.  And what is most interesting about that figure is this. Although these bases will now begin to include books and journals in composition studies, until now they have not.  So if citations in journals like English Education, English Journal, Language Arts, College Composition and Communication, and College English do not figure in the 75,000 citations I have mentioned, where are these citations of Janet Emig’s work to be found?  Let me offer you a few examples:  The Journal of Instructional Science, The Journal of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, The International Journal of Science Education, The Reference and User Services Quarterly, and The Journal of Creative Behavior.

In the fields in which Janet works, there is not a handbook, a sourcebook, a collection of landmark or classic essays that does not include an essay written by Janet Emig. Anne Gere noted recently that in her current position as Director of NCTE’s James R. Squire Office of Policy Research, where she has the happy duty of tracing and building upon the research traditions that Janet helped to establish, she is reminded almost daily of the importance of Janet’s contributions to our field.

Janet’s contributions to the stature and development of NCTE, the discipline which it represents, and the profession of education as a whole continue. Professor Emerita in English Education from Rutgers University, Janet continues to confer, speak, and write about issues of central concern to teachers and researchers in the fields of English education and composition studies in terms that resound beyond these fields. In a special double-issue of English Education published in July 2006, Janet was a co-author of the lead article, “The State of English Education and a Vision for Its Future: A Call to Arms,” an essay I recommend to everyone in the room.

Before I present Janet the James R, Squire Award plaque, I want to read something she has written in an essay due to appear next year. I want to read this excerpt to you because it is Janet’s description of how the field of composition studies came to be established.  In it you will hear the wise, witty, modest, and generous voice of the transforming scholar we have all come to admire.”

Stock then read the following excerpt from Composition’s Roots in English Education:  “We took writing seriously again after an unhappy hiatus, rescuing it from being regarded simply as a skill and domestic drudgery. Instead we honored it as an essential symbolic process worthy of being a subject and an object of inquiry, possibly constituting a field, perhaps even a discipline.  We took children and adolescents seriously as learners. We took schools, especially public schools seriously noting how they form and deform learning.  We connected writing with its indigenous and by that I mean American philosophical roots and pragmatism and neo-pragmatism.  We fore-grounded the complex interplay of learner with researcher, including teacher researcher, dealing necessarily, if at times only implicitly, with issues of gender, race and culture. We did this through naturalistic inquiry, notably case study and ethnography at a time when the very few studies of written composition were being conducted as experimental studies only.  Consequently, we conducted studies that possibly possess biological as well as cultural accuracy about how writers actually write, learners actually learn, rather than metaphysical pronouncements and prescriptions about how students should be required to write. If we had a mantra it might be the one Stephen Marcus phrases simply: We are more than anything else, born to learn.”

Stock concluded, “Janet Emig, thank you for being born to learn . . . and to teach.”

Dr. Emig responded, “Thank you, Patti, for your matchless generosity, leadership, and friendship.  Receiving this award bearing Jim’s name holds unique meaning for me because in a very vivid sense I owe, I believe, my career to him. When he urged the NCTE Committee on Research to publish the revised version of my dissertation on the composing processes, Jim committed an act of great intellectual courage.  In 2006, it is almost impossible to remember the non-status of writing as a subject and object of inquiry 40 years ago.  At Harvard and MIT, for example, it was the heyday of Noam Chomsky and transformational grammar and as we know when academics are being monomaniacal, no one does it better.  I thank the Council as well.  As I have said more than once, here reside my truest colleagues.  As a profession and as a Council, we are more necessary than ever. The novelist, Elizabeth Bowen, once wrote that most of us are better than what happens to us.  That is true, I think, of nations as well.  Certainly, I think, it is true of our own country at this moment.  We are necessary because we are hopelessly and irredeemably politicized and political. Freestanding grammar, phonics, English as the official language of the country, ask us to take a stand, and we will.  Ask us not to take a stand, and we will assuredly, but with even greater force and eloquence.  And we will prevail, and why?  I think it’s obvious, isn’t it? We will prevail because we are obdurate, we are literate and, of course, we are right!  Thank you.”

President Sato called on Martin Nystrand, a member of the 2006 David H. Russell Award Selection Committee.  Nystrand announced Catherine Prendergast, Associate Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, as the winner of the 2006 David H. Russell Award for her book Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v Board of Education.  Nystrand informed the audience that Prendergast would speak at the Opening Session of the Day of Research, 8:00-9:15 a.m. Saturday, November 18, in the Tennessee Ballroom B.  The title of Prendergast’s presentation is “Twenty-Two Years and Counting: The Future of Affirmative Action.”  Anne Haas Dyson, Chair of the 2006 Russell Award Committee, will present the award at the Sunday General Session.  The other member of this year’s selection committee was John Mayher.  The selection committee considered 12 nominated books.  This is not the first award that Cathy Prendergast’s book has won. It received the CCCC Outstanding Book Award a year ago.  It has won the Mina P. Shaughnessy Award from MLA and also the W. Ross Winterowd Award.  It is a solid programmatic systematic study, and it was the most ambitious study the selection committee examined.

Nystrand explained that Prendergast looks closely at the legacy of Brown v the Board of Education and its effects upon schools and subsequent court decisions. An ideology of literacy in America is sustained, Prendergast argues, by perceived threats to white property interests.  Prendergast advances critical race theory to show that a quiet but powerful discourse about race shapes discourse in America about literacy, including rhetoric about declining literacy standards, the character of literacy tests used for employment discrimination, and we might add high-stakes testing and No Child Left Behind. Of particular interest to the history of the Russell Award, Prendergast’s book situates Shirley Brice Heath’s 1984 Russell Award winning Ways with Words in the times that Heath conducted the study.  Here race is powerfully absent, obscured not only in the data by taboos of the local communities where Heath gathered her data, but also lost in the occurrence of social linguistics in the 1970s, eliding race and class.  Prendergast is historizing our ideas about literacy and the lenses we use to examine it.  Catherine Prendergast is now working on two books. She has one under review and another in the works. Her newest lead is Ted Kaczynski, who has given her written permission to examine his diaries for her book, Of Sound Mind, Mental Disability and the Representation of Self. Nystrand concluded by expressing his pleasure at announcing this award and encouraging everyone to attend Prendergast’s talk and the Sunday General Session, where Anne Haas Dyson will present the award.

President Sato introduced Leila Christenbury, NCTE Historian, who provided a moment of NCTE history.  Christenbury shared a moment involving one of our newer and yet very effective NCTE awards.  “An award which is given at the Annual Convention and which is focused on literacy work in the community where the Convention is held.  Begun in 1989 and established as a vehicle for calling attention to admirable efforts to promote literacy in our country, the NCTE Executive Committee gives an annual Literacy Award to a public figure or organization outside education who has shown outstanding commitment to the educational development of young people in America and has made a significant difference in promoting and drawing public attention to the issue of literacy. Since 1989, the award has gone to both individuals and groups.

Let’s begin with politicians. The 1989 award winner was First Lady Barbara Bush, whose work with the Right to Read Program was honored. Mayor of Baltimore Kurt L. Schmoke was honored in 1990 for the Baltimore Reads program and Baltimore City Literacy Corporation.  Colorado Governor Ray Romer, Chair of the National Education Goals Panel, was recognized in 1993, and Republican Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi and California Democratic Representative George Miller shared the 1996 award for their work promoting their continued funding of the National Writing Project.

Athletes have also been honored. In 1995, Kevin Johnson, a basketball player for the Phoenix Suns, was recognized for his work with the Sacramento, CA, St. Hope Academy, and in 2001, baseball great Cal Ripkin, Jr., was honored with his wife Kelly for the Kelly and Cal Ripkin, Jr., Foundation and the Baltimore Reads Ripkin Learning Center, both of which involve family and adult literacy. Celebrities have also won the award. Oprah Winfrey won in 1997 for her literacy work through her talk show and her sponsorship of Oprah’s Book Club.  Levar Burton was honored in 1994 for his work with the PBS program Reading Rainbow.

Individuals outside of show business, politics, and sports have also received the NCTE Literacy Award. They include the 1991 winner Julia Palmer, a former director of the American Reading Council and an activist who worked for many years in New York City bringing books and effective reading instruction to low income children and adults. In 2000, Darlyne Haertlein, Supervisor of Community Relations for Milwaukee Public Television, was honored for her many projects involving reading and education, and in 2002, Pearl Cleage of Atlanta was recognized for her work as an author, poet, essayist, playwright and former columnist.

Groups that have received the NCTE Literacy Award include Pittsburgh’s PBS Station WQED, in 2005, for its huge range of literacy programs as well as its promotion of our favorite neighborhood man, Mr. Rogers. Other groups honored include Schools on Wheels, which in 2004, was recognized for its literacy work with the homeless children of Indianapolis, among other things, giving each child in need, a backpack filled with school supplies. In 2003, the Literacy Award went to 826 Valencia, a San Francisco organization that offers free drop-in tutoring as well as workshops and storytelling. In 1998, 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee were recognized for the Read to Achievement Program, and in 1999, LARASA, the Latin American Research and Service Agency was honored for its work in Denver neighborhoods with supporting parent leadership.  Perhaps one of the most unusual winners of the NCTE Literacy Award is Oakland, CA, real estate agent Oral Lee Brown, who shared the 2003 award for her sponsorship of the Oral Lee Brown Foundation, an organization that supports education for low income children.

One of the challenges of the Literacy Award has been actually giving the award in person. Due to schedule complications and other obligations, very few of the awardees cited have been able to come to the Convention to receive their recognition in the flesh.  While almost all have sent a representative, NCTE Convention-goers have not caught sight of the likes of Barbara Bush, Oprah Winfrey, Levar Burton, or Cal Ripkin.

Thus, it was no surprise in 1998 when Dolly Parton, co-winner with 100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee and founder of the Dollywood Foundation, could not attend the NCTE Convention to be honored for her work with the Imagination Library Project. As expected, Parton sent a representative to accept the award but then something occurred which is yet to be topped at any Literacy Award event. Ms. Parton’s representatives, actually there were two, one of whom identified herself as Ms. Parton’s close and childhood friend, went to the podium, expressed Dolly’s regrets, but said that she would indeed have a few words. The lights dimmed, a huge screen came down from the ballroom ceiling and those in attendance saw a five-minute produced, orchestrated color film featuring a decked out Dolly Parton, seated in a living room and flanked by huge flowers, who gave the requisite apology regarding speaking before English teachers. She went on to welcome NCTE to Nashville and apologize for not being there in person. Ms. Parton then explained how much the Award meant to her and how her project provided six years of free books with a train shaped bookcase for every child born in her home of Sevier County, TN.  Dolly also talked about reading in her own life. While the costumes, jewelry, hair, need we say wig, makeup, and strong Tennessee accent were not customary to most NCTE members, Dolly’s laughter and genuine words were clearly the real thing. Those assembled listened transfixed and at the end there were a number of moist eyes and a whole lot of applause. Long live the Literacy Award.”

President Sato called on Past President Randy Bomer who introduced NCTE Past Presidents in attendance:  Yetta Goodman, John Stewig, Nancy McHugh, Julie Jensen, Janet Emig, Ruth Cline, Carol Avery, Sheridan Blau, Jerome Harste, Anne Ruggles Gere, Leila Christenbury, David Bloome, and Patricia Lambert Stock. He also acknowledged former Executive Directors, Faith Schullstrom and Miles Myers.

President Sato next introduced Wendy Warren, Chair of the NCTE Nominating Committee, who announced the positions for which nominations were being sought: Vice President to be chosen from the secondary section, Elementary and Middle Level Reps-at-Large, Trustees of the Research Foundation, and next year’s NCTE Nominating Committee. She informed the audience that tables were set up in the back of the room for receiving nominations for the above-mentioned positions and also for the elementary, middle, secondary, and college sections, CEE, and TYCA.

President Sato announced that, since everyone had received a copy of her President’s Annual Report, she would not be reporting on it. Instead she preferred to highlight the Recommendations for the Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which were distributed at the door.  She provided a brief history before reading the five recommendations (below). “We thought the reauthorization was an opening for us to voice our concerns as an organization.  We are one of among 70 other organizations that have registered opinions on this change, we hope, in No Child Left Behind. A team of writers in NCTE drafted the recommendations; then a team chosen from all sections, all levels and across the nation reviewed it. Next, our legislative consultant in Washington, DC, offered suggestions on the political language. Finally, the Presidential Team reviewed it and forwarded it to the Government Relations Subcommittee of the NCTE Executive Committee.  Eventually the entire Executive Committee approved the document.”

NCLB Recommendations
(Approved by the NCTE Executive Committee, November 15, 2006)

1. Multiple assessments are needed for an accurate portrait of the academic achievement of all students. No single test can provide an accurate portrait of students and schools. Smarter, more nuanced assessments can provide better information on achievement without increasing the testing burden and wasting valuable instructional time. Accordingly, NCTE recommends that multiple assessments be used to determine student and school progress and that assessment data be made available to teachers in a timely fashion so they can use it to shape instruction.

2. Teacher quality is an important factor in enhancing learning. NCTE recommends increasing federal funding for capacity building in schools and districts. Title II funds need to be set aside for the Professional Development Incentive Fund, not merely for class size reduction (the focus of most current spending).

3. High-need students should have the best prepared and most experienced teachers. Unfortunately, the least prepared and least experienced teachers are disproportionately assigned to schools with the greatest need for expert literacy instruction. NCTE, therefore, recommends that federal programs be designed to support highly prepared, experienced teachers in schools with the greatest number of high-need students. In addition, providers of supplementary services should also be highly prepared teachers.

4. Reading First, as the report of the Office of Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Education shows, has been riddled with ethical and legal violations which excluded many researchers from the grants evaluation process. To improve the reliability of grant review, NCTE urges that an objective peer review system be adopted that empowers independent panels of scholars representing multiple perspectives to make recommendations on the basis of observable data.

Re-examining the definition of “scientifically based reading research” under NCLB will improve the coherence and impact of the bill. NCTE recommends a definition that aligns with that of the National Research Council, emphasizing peer review and multiple methodologies. Finally, as required by law, rigorous research on the impacts of Reading First should be conducted.

5. NCTE supports the adoption of growth models to track increased achievement and provide longitudinal data based on the performance of individual students and subgroups. Instead of the existing Adequate Yearly Progress measure that compares different groups of students to chart achievement, growth models (currently in use in several states) track growth of the same students over time, a more accurate indicator of academic success. In particular, growth models provide a more valid means of measuring success for English Language Learners (ELLs) and at-risk students, who need extended time to achieve and maintain proficiency in literacy.

President Sato invited NCTE Executive Director, Kent Williamson, to present his report from Headquarters.

Williamson presented a brief summary of NCTE’s progress in FY06, the year ending June 2006. NCTE ended the year with $19.92 million in reserve, which is roughly $211,000 more than our reserve balance at the end of the prior year. The Council did, however, absorb its first significant loss on operations in the last five years.  We spent $297,563 more than we had earned from conventional revenue sources in FY06, but we managed to deepen our reserves through appreciation on investments. Our biggest challenges last year were membership and publications. We had budgeted for aggressive growth in FY06, but we saw membership slip by 3.8%, and the book publications program deficit grew to roughly $147,000.  Journals and the 2005 Convention continued to earn income for NCTE, although not as much as they had the prior year. Fortunately, professional development revenue continued to grow, and overall spending came in at only $8.33 million, which was nearly $580,000 less than we had budgeted.  It is significant that we managed to keep spending in check while we launched many new initiatives last year.  Williamson asked the audience to read from his report, distributed at the door, the bulleted list of new directions the Council has taken in the last year.

For the next three years, Williamson continued, the Executive Committee has approved a reinvestment of some of those invested reserves in building new services for the Council. In FY07, we are authorized to invest up to $735,000 in a series of programs and initiatives designed to enhance services to all who care about improving the teaching and learning of English.  Some of the changes you will see before the New York Convention are the introduction of the “Pathways to Learning” professional development program for teachers of adolescent literacy. It will soon be followed by a systematic program to support teachers of English language learners and a program to support new teacher induction for early career teachers. We are also introducing a series of blogs to promote discussion within our professional community and we are revitalizing the SLATE grassroots advocacy network through frequent Action Alerts and calls to participate in the policy process. All members are invited to attend the English Language Arts Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on April 26, 2007. There is free registration information in the Exhibit Hall.

Williamson also announced NCTE’s first ever invitational summit, The 21st Century Literacies Impact Conference, on the University of California–Berkeley campus in early February 2007. The conference promises to define a new literacy education agenda, not just for the country, but for some of the leading technology firms and other education groups that see literacy as all of our responsibility.

Other initiatives include redesigning the NCTE website and online publishing system to try to re-launch a much more participative, easy-to-navigate website by next school year. Re-examining the structure of membership benefits should help to build membership growth again.  Finally, improving our relations with the new U.S. Congress requires work on many fronts at a time when many policies that influence access to the context of literacy education could well be changing.

While a reinvestment of NCTE resources has been authorized to help fund these developments, Williamson said, “I am pleased to report that through the first four months of this fiscal year, the pace of growth has already begun to increase. Membership is growing again, book sales and professional development activity increased and this convention is shaping up to be the largest in at least ten years. The truth is we will only sustain this kind of progress when NCTE becomes the professional home of many more of our colleagues.  We really need everyone’s participation. The English language arts community has so much to offer our students, their families, and our communities, but we can only begin to deliver the benefits of this knowledge after we first learn to support each other on a day-to-day basis. You are NCTE.  Help us build the services and initiatives needed to unlock the terrific potential for progress that we, collectively, can deliver.”

President Sato called on Kathleen Blake Yancey, Vice President, to announce upcoming NCTE meetings.  Yancey reported that the 97th Annual Convention will be in New York City, November 15-20; the theme is “Diverse Literacies for the Twenty-First Century: Opportunities, Challenges, and Promising New Directions.”  Future NCTE conventions, she continued, will be held in San Antonio, TX, November 20-25, 2008; Philadelphia, PA, November 19-24, 2009; Orlando, FL, November 18-23, 2010; the 100th anniversary in Chicago, IL, November 17-22, 2011; and Phoenix, AZ, November 15-20, 2012.  The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Annual Convention will be held March 21-24, 2007, in New York City; the theme is “Representing Identities.” The following year, the CCCC Annual Convention will take place April 2-5, 2008, in New Orleans, LA.  The Whole Language Umbrella Conference will be meeting July 12-15, 2007, in Louisville, KY, and July 17-20, 2008, in Tucson, AZ. The NCTE Assembly for Research Mid-Winter Conference will be held February 23-25, 2007, in Nashville, TN.

President Sato moved to “New Business” and called on Carol Jago, Chair of the Resolutions Committee, to present this year’s resolutions.

Resolution 1

Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English continue to affirm the

• value of reading and literature for appreciation, learning, and enjoyment;
• critical need of instilling in young people a love of literature and reading for its own sake;
• important and critical roles that children’s and young adult literature should play in the classroom; and

that NCTE recommend that

• reading curricula focus on selecting, reading, responding to, and analyzing a wide range of literature;
• a wide range of high-quality literature representing diverse experiences and perspectives be integrated into all content areas, including reading instruction;
• students engage in deep and extended experiences with full authentic texts rather than with adaptations; and
• students are guaranteed opportunities to select literature representing a variety of topics and degrees of challenge.

The Resolutions Committee moved the adoption of the Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum.

President Sato called for discussion.

Susan Harmon, CA, moved that the first bullet under “Resolved” read “NCTE opposes the use of scripted commercial, instructional, and incentive programs for teaching language arts” and that under “NCTE recommends that” the first bullet be “NCTE recommends that states demand reopening of their applications for Reading First funds so they can choose curriculums supported by NCTE.”

Without objection, President Sato divided the motion to take up one revision at a time. Carol Edelsky, AZ seconded the first part of the motion.

President Sato observed that the resolution begins with an affirmation and that the proposed amendment suggested something in opposition. The language did not match the stem, the lead in.

Jago responded that the Resolutions Committee feels that it has addressed this issue in the third resolution.

Joan Kaywell, FL, spoke against the amendment.  Although she agreed with the statement, the amendment did not belong with the bullet on reading; in her view it had to do with the teacher’s choice on choosing curriculum materials for their classroom.

After some discussion to clarify the precise wording and location of the amendment, President Sato called the question. The first part of the amendment FAILED.

The second part of the amendment was read again: “NCTE recommends that states demand reopening of their applications for Reading First funds so that they can choose curriculums supported by NCTE.” The language would constitute the first bullet following “That NCTE recommend that.”

President Sato asked for a second on the motion to amend. Carol Edelsky seconded the motion.

The Resolutions Committee felt that the issue had been addressed in the Executive Committee’s NCLB Recommendations that President Sato referenced earlier in her report.

Susan Harmon, CA, expressed delight with the five NCLB recommendations but observed that they deal with the future.  She offered the amendment so that states could reverse decisions about using programs that they would never have chosen if they hadn’t been coerced.

President Sato called for the vote. The amendment FAILED.

President Sato asked for further discussion on the main motion, Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum.

Joan Kaywell, FL, proposed that the last words of the resolution be changed from “degrees of challenge” to “degrees of difficulty.”

Jago on behalf of the Resolutions Committee accepted this language as a friendly amendment.  President Sato called the question. The Resolution on the Essential Roles and Value of Literature in the Curriculum CARRIED AS AMENDED.

Resolution 2

Resolution on Increasing Secondary School Graduation Rates

Resolved, in light of recent efforts to increase the graduation rates of secondary students, that the National Council of Teachers of English continue to affirm

• students' right to their own language;
• students' right to culturally responsive curriculum;
• students' right to professional and engaging teachers; and

be it also resolved that NCTE

• work collaboratively with school districts, and teachers to create solutions to low high school graduation rates;
• advocate for all students' access to a rigorous, engaging curriculum and the support necessary to achieve academic success and to graduate; 
• promote the development of materials and programs that help underserved students achieve academic literacy; and
• recognize and support the professional contributions and continuing development of secondary school teachers, particularly those working with students in danger of not graduating.

Marilyn Valentino for the Resolution Committee moved the adoption of the Resolution on Increasing Secondary School Graduation Rates.
President Sato called for discussion informing the audience that the resolution was submitted by the Resolutions Committee.

On a suggestion from Yetta Goodman, AZ, the Resolutions Committee accepted as a friendly amendment the addition of “parents, communities” to the first bullet after “be it also resolved that NCTE." As amended the phrase would read “work collaboratively with school districts, parents, communities, and teachers to create solutions to low high school graduation rates.”

Ruby Clayton, IN, proposed adding a fourth bullet to the first “Resolved”:  “students’ right to teachers who care deeply about their learning.”  The addition was accepted as a friendly amendment.

Deb Gross-Harmon, OR, requested that “secondary” be substituted for “high” in the first bullet of the second section so that the bullet would read, “work collaboratively with school districts, parents, communities, and teachers to create solutions to low secondary school graduation rates. The substitution was accepted as a friendly amendment. Laurie Katz, OH, suggested changing the word “parents” to “families” in the first bullet of the second section to respect different family structures: “work collaboratively with school districts, families, communities, and teachers to create solutions to low secondary school graduation rates.”  The revision was accepted as a friendly amendment.

The Resolution on Increasing Secondary School Graduation Rates CARRIED AS AMENDED.

Resolution 3

Resolution on the Critical Role of Teachers in the Selection and Implementation of Reading Programs and Policies

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English promote

• active collaboration among teachers, administrators, and school board members in the selection and implementation of programs and materials for the teaching of reading;
• education of policymakers, school board members, and school administrators in the areas of reading and language education so that their actions and policies reflect current research and effective practices in reading; and
• development of protocols, decision-making tools, and participation structures for use by school personnel engaging in curriculum processes.

Jane Braunger for the Resolutions Committee moved the adoption of the Resolution on the Critical Role of Teachers in the Selection and Implementation of Reading Programs and Policies.

President Sato called for discussion; hearing none, she called the question. The Resolution on the Critical Role of Teachers in the Selection and Implementation of Reading Program and Policies CARRIED.

Sato thanked the 2007 Resolutions Committee for their work and asked for a round of applause. She then announced that no sense-of-the-house motions had been submitted.
 
Declarations:

Bruce Novak, IL, Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, announced the Assembly’s summer conference.  The theme of the conference is “The Emotional Life of Teachers” and will be held in the mountains of Colorado. Keynote speakers will include Sheridan Blau and Peter Elbow. The 2007 conference is being organized by Irene Papoulis.

Pam Schoen, MN, commended Sharon Chaney, her Associate Chairs and the Local Committee for a fine conference in Nashville.

Susan Harmon, CA, invited conference attendees to hear presentations by Susan Ohanian and Elaine Garan at a featured session, “Challenging NCLB: The Need for Civil Disobedience,” Saturday, November 18, 11:00 a.m.  The press would be present and eager to speak with real teachers having real problems.

President Sato thanked everyone for attending the Board of Directors Meeting and entertained a motion to adjourn. Yetta Goodman, AZ, moved to adjourn the meeting; seconded by Patricia Lambert Stock, MI.  The motion CARRIED. The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m.