Where teachers were once limited to traditional textbooks, informational texts, novels, and materials passed along by others, today the online marketplace is wide open, flush with copious materials that teachers might choose, often at little or no cost. But practically nothing is known about what these supplemental instructional materials actually…

While more students than ever are completing high school with a diploma, the American education system has a long way to go until each and every student is prepared for what comes after graduation. Unless significant advancements are made in closing existing gaps in educational attainment, America's current employment gaps will worsen as the…

This report describes a plan for maximizing the learning potential of exceptionally gifted secondary students. The targeted 52 eleventh grade students are members of a high school American Studies program located in a community 50 miles from a large Midwestern city. The issue of unfulfilled learning potential of the students was documented through…

The English Department at Portland State University (Oregon) sponsored a roundtable discussion (revolving around classroom practice, perspectives, pedagogies, and methodologies) of public school, community college, and university English teachers in the winter of 1991 and expanded the dialogue into a focus group during the summer. A survey…

The goal of this practicum was to increase the opportunities of secondary African American and Latino students to critically read, think, and write about literature that was diverse both in terms of culture and gender. Although the students (61 students in grade 11) had completed 2 years of high school English classes, the overwhelming majority of…

A national survey was conducted to determine what book-length works are currently being taught in public, parochial, and independent secondary schools (grades 7-12). Department chairs were asked to list the works which all students, in any English class, study. Although the rank ordering differed somewhat in the three samples, the top 10 titles…

A practicum was developed which used improvisation and mapping strategies in the teaching of Shakespearean drama to increase comprehension and to develop a more positive attitude toward Shakespeare and drama in general. Subjects were a target group of 15 students enrolled in a ninth grade English class at a preparatory institution. Subjects, who…

Outlining an alternative to the basic English classes that segregate slower learning students from their peers, this booklet describes the English Skills Program for ninth graders at Parkway North High School in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Following an introduction explaining the origins of the program, the first two sections describe the program's…

The purpose of the Model Academic Curriculum Project was to assess and define the most effective components of the curriculum for Massachusetts vocational-technical schools that would be reflective of current academic demands and employment needs. Eight study goals were implemented: establish statewide meetings; identify/select study groups;…

This practicum was designed to help college-bound sophomores make connections between English class and the world of work so that they could make informed decisions about college and career choices. The target population was 90 honors-level 10th grade English students on an interdisciplinary team. The setting was a predominately middle class,…

Intended to help teachers prepare students for the Alberta (Canada) Grade 12 diploma examinations, this bulletin updates information about the design, sections, and scoring of the examinations in English 30 and 33 for the 1987-88 school year. Following a summary of the substantial revisions the examinations have undergone for this current edition,…