Standing Committee Against Censorship

Function: To solicit and receive reports of censorship incidents from NCTE members, constituent groups, and sources outside the Council; to serve as a resource on current patterns of censorship; supporting the anti-censorship service office at headquarters; to develop written guidelines for students' Right to Write, including advice for schools dealing with situations in which student writing is taken as threatening to the safety of other students, where freedom of expression must be weighed against individual or school security; to develop a written position on whether the narrowing of the curriculum that occurs in response to high-stakes testing can be understood as censorship.  Such a position may be related to your Right to Write work, but it may also warrant a separate statement; and to develop a written position on whether the restriction of student language to English may be an act of censorship, and whether schools in which students speak multiple languages but where only English is evident in print materials is an instance of censorship.

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

• Sponsored two sessions at the 2006 annual convention, one featuring Nancy Garden, the other the winner and runners-up for the 2006 Intellectual Freedom Award.
• Submitted proposals for the 2007 annual convention, one “Speaking Out: Three Authors Discuss Their Experiences With Censorship,” featuring authors Carolyn Mackler, Robie Harris, Maryrose Wood, the other “Defending Intellectual Freedom,” featuring Judith Krug, the director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom since its founding in 1967;
• Participated with members of SLATE in the selection of The Blue Springs School Board as the winner of the NCTE/SLATE National Intellectual Freedom Award;
• Review and selection of five new members for the committee.

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

• Revision of “Defining and Defending Instructional Methods”;
• Completed a draft policy statement in response to the 2004 “Resolution on Students’ Rights of Expression,” currently in revision;
• Participating in the selection of this year’s recipient of the NCTE/SLATE National Intellectual Freedom Award;
• Review and selection of new committee members, increasing committee membership from 10 to 15 over the next two years.

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?

The problems censorship poses in schools seem to connect to several of these areas but in a somewhat peripheral way, having an impact most directly, perhaps, on teachers’ time and ability to choose instructional materials and to design writing projects that will meet the needs of all of their students.  These are general concerns which are already addressed in a number of NCTE publications and/or are currently under review by the committee.

Robert Crafton, Chair