A survey was conducted of schools in 15 states to provide a comprehensive view of the status of speech communication in secondary schools and to compare the current status to that found in earlier surveys. Of the 4,341 schools responding to the survey, 76% indicated that they offered a speech course and of these, 32% indicated that they required the course. Overall, the findings showed that the offerings of speech communication curricula have not changed in the past 15 years. The basic course was a semester long and was offered only once a year to a combination of ninth or tenth through twelfth grade students. The average section had 20 students and was generally 55 minutes long. Although a combination of topics (including oral interpretation, debate, mass media, and drama) were usually taught in the basic course, public speaking dominated the course. The most frequently cited textbook was "The Art of Speaking," by Elson and Peck. Drama was the most frequently offered advanced and extracurricular course. The majority of teachers of speech courses had five or fewer years of experience and 70% of all speech teachers had English as their teaching assignment. Forty-four percent of the teachers indicated graduate work in progress, with 33% having their master's degrees. The teachers did not report strong affiliations with professional associations. (FL)