Investigates the Praxis II, the standardized teacher examination required for teacher certification in Georgia. Considers why African American teacher candidates were less successful than their white colleagues in passing this exit exam for teacher licensure. Concludes that assessment must account for the cultural realities that teacher candidates…

Discusses how in Connecticut, all teachers must be certified for the position they hold. Outlines the specific certification levels in Connecticut for English Language Arts. (SG)

Discusses the Praxis II exam, "English Language, Literature, and Composition: Content Knowledge," a two-hour multiple-choice exam with questions on American, British, and world literature, literary terms, grammar and usage, and teaching. Suggests that knowledge of subject matter seems to be related to successful teaching, but whether certification…

Discusses how members of the Iowa Legislature, the Iowa State Department of Education, and the Iowa Association of Colleges of Teacher Education have been in heated conversation in the last year about the legislature's push to institute teacher testing as a way of improving the quality of Iowa's teaching force. (SG)

Notes that policy makers would like to "guarantee" that candidates from teacher education programs are content and pedagogy certified. Discusses how accountability assessment plays out in teacher education programs. Focuses on the tests required in Georgia, the Praxis Series of Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers, developed and…

Considers how Illinois has always tested teachers for certification, but now state officials are holding teacher education programs at colleges and universities accountable for "passing rates" on these examinations as part of the Federal Title II initiative which is intended to identify and make public "bad quality" teacher education programs. (SG)

Notes that within the past five years, the national standards movement has prompted many states to turn to the use of test scores to hold students and teachers accountable to higher standards in academic achievement. Discusses the unintended consequences: pervasive emotional pressure, reductionist views of literacy, conflicted views of teaching…

Revisits the author's efforts to deliberately craft words that surfaced in conversations with others. Reflects on the writing of "What Difference Does Difference Make," which won the author the Emig Award. Emphasizes two qualities of pedagogical storytelling that are critically important when that talk is about "difference." (SG)

Explores the role that tagging (a simple form of graffiti) plays around the school and community. Argues that even the writing of a name on a wall opens out into a rich discourse community, in which taggers carry on complex conversations, negotiate and challenge shared discursive norms, and develop identities that are intimately connected to a…

Explores--through a close analysis of one innovative class project--the questions of text, power, and technology implied in a shift to a broader definition of text in the English classroom. Poses the intersection of technology and media literacy as a crucial site for new understandings of the texts at stake in twenty-first century literacies and…

Presents a personal story of one educator becoming involved in Conference on English Education (CEE) Commissions. Gives an update of ongoing work of CEE Commissions. Encourages all CEE members to rededicate themselves to CEE work. (SG)

Describes how the Critical Friends Group (CFG) concept brings together teachers at all levels of experience to promote and support one another's professional growth. Conducts a case study of a student teacher participating in a CFG. Suggests that formal collaborative practice can enhance the preservice teacher's conception of the profession, as…

Describes the process and product of a revision of the author's literacy methods course, a revision that grew from a student's comment questioning the student's "right" to evaluate another student's work. Theorizes the role of authority in the course and explains how contours of power and freedom create spaces in which prospective teachers have…

Provides information about the authors' course and how they collected and analyzed data. Shares what they learned about the range of epistemological perspectives of their students. Explores how students' beliefs may have shaped their experiences in the courses and their reflections on their work in the field. Finds many students drew on multiple…

Considers why some English language arts teachers are reluctant to use technology while others embrace it passionately. Discusses when it is best to integrate technology and when more traditional approaches should prevail. Explores some of these issues. (SG)