This article presents the text of Keith Gilyard's presidential address, delivered at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 18, 2012. In his address he proposes several core elements that he believes will instrumentally improve the education system in the United States: a rich…

This article presents the author's presidential address, delivered at the NCTE Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on November 20, 2011. The author focuses on the powerful stories that define educators. The author's point is that telling one's story is one of the most important things an educator can do for those he/she teaches as well as for…

This article presents the text of the author's presidential address, delivered at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 22, 2009. For the author, the title of this president's address, "Sailing over the Edge: Navigating the Uncharted Waters of a World Gone Flat," calls to…

This article presents the text of Joanne Yatvin's presidential address, delivered at the NCTE Annual Convention in New York City in November 2007. The title of her presidential address, "Where Ignorant Armies Clash by Night," was taken from Matthew Arnold's (1867) poem "Dover Beach." Yatvin states that the federal government has usurped the right…

In a speech to the NCTE Annual Convention in Pittsburgh PA, Randy Bomer presented his eloquent reflections on literacy education in these troubled times. The political impetus for control of the national literacy education policy rose mainly from the Christian right, and there is no significant opposition to it in the government.

Discusses considerations faced by practitioner researchers as they write for publication, particularly as they encounter the template of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). Argues that some APA conventions--such as beginning an article with theory rather than the story of the research--do not suite the purposes…

Reflects on ethical issues that are central to the author's work as an educational researcher. Argues that research ought to be practiced as a form of service that respects teachers and students and enables researchers to grow through a process of reflection. (SG)

Considers the doubts the author has had about the design of an award winning study, focusing especially on a researcher's obligation to help the teachers with whom the researcher is working, even at the risk of jeopardizing a study's design. Traces the way that her engagement with that question has led to her current professional commitments. (SC)

Proposes a method for describing the relationship between writing error and style shifting rates across communicative situations. Finds that errors diminished in proportion to the tendency of students to select grammatical features that are shared by Black American English and Standard American English in formal communicative situations. (RAE)

Recognizes and praises the research of Margaret Donaldson for what it reveals about children's thinking and highlights three central contributions of her work to the understanding of children's language learning. (HOD)