PRESS RELEASE

Experts Rethink Policy Issues at English Education “Summit”

A three-day Conference on English Education Leadership and Policy Summit, held May 20-22, 2005, at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, brought together over 75 experts from across the United States to rethink issues related to the preparation and continuing professional development of English language arts teachers and teacher educators.  The event was sponsored by the Conference on English Education (CEE), a constituent group of the National Council of Teachers of English.  Suzanne Miller, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, CEE Chair, initiated the Summit and co-planned with Dana L. Fox, Georgia State University, the CEE Leadership and Policy Summit Chair.

The major goal of the summit was to assemble a collective knowledge base through a series of written position papers to guide future policy efforts of English teacher preparation and development in this country.  In her opening remarks, Suzanne Miller noted that that the Summit was convening at a crucial time in the history of English education:  “It is a time when the teaching of English Language Arts and the preparing of English Language Arts teachers have become topics of keen interest for policymakers, some of whom know little about these issues. We need to frame our key values and beliefs and to create the language that gains attention to those values and beliefs.” According to CEE Summit Chair Dana Fox, “We worked very hard to articulate a shared vision for the future of English education by developing a research-based framework of working principles and recommended actions in critical areas.  We focused specifically on how we might best communicate with policy makers, administrators, and community members.”

More than an intellectual retreat, the summit was a working meeting where much discussion and writing took place.  Collaborating in small thematic inquiry groups, the invited participants worked together on listservs for several months prior to the summit and then face-to-face in Atlanta for three days.  Small groups explored seven themes:  (1) How do we redefine English education for the 21st century?  (2) What do we know and believe about the roles of methods courses and field experiences in English education?  (3) What do we know and believe about supporting linguistically and culturally diverse learners in English education?  (4) What do we know and believe about multimodal literacies and digital technologies in English education?  (5) How might we more meaningfully assess the effectiveness of English education programs?  (6) How can CEE help its constituencies, the broader public, and policymakers understand the relationship between research and teaching? and (7) How might we nurture and grow the membership of CEE?  Follow-up activities will include publishing the policy briefs and other short documents, contributing longer articles to peer-reviewed journals, and compiling a book on the future of English education.

An esteemed CEE History Panel opened the Summit by reflecting on the history of the organization and offering insights and suggestions for the future.  Janet Swenson, former CEE Chair, convened the CEE History Panel that consisted of Leila Christenbury, Council Historian, Virginia Commonwealth University; Janet Emig, Emerita, Rutgers University; Edmund Farrell, Emeritus, University of Texas; Ben Nelms, Emeritus, Universities of Florida and Missouri; and Gordon Pradl, New York University.  Kent Williamson, Executive Director of NCTE, spoke at the summit as did a number of NCTE and CEE leaders, including Patricia Lambert Stock, immediate Past President of NCTE.

Members of the CEE Executive Committee and other leading English educators served as co-conveners of the thematic strand groups:  (1) Janet Alsup, Purdue University, and Bob Yagelski, University at Albany, State University of New York; (2) Peg Graham, University of Georgia, and Ruth Vinz, Teachers College, Columbia University; (3) Bob Fecho, University of Georgia, and Fenice Boyd, University at Buffalo, State University of New York; (4) Janet Swenson, Michigan State University, and Ewa McGrail, Georgia State University; (5) Joyce Stallworth, University of Alabama, and Stephen Koziol, University of Maryland; (6) Don Zancanella, University of New Mexico, and John Mayher, New York University; and (7) Dawn Abt-Perkins, Lake Forest College, and Jill VanAntwerp, Grand Valley State University.

For more information on the CEE Leadership and Policy Summit, to read belief statements produced by each thematic strand group, and to view a full list of participants, see http://www.ncte.org/groups/cee/featuredinfo/122844.htm.