This study examines the core literature in high school book rooms. Has the core literature changed over time with changing demographics? The review of the literature established the existence of a core literature, and that most high school students read from a fairly small list of books. The literature review reveals that students are not happy…

Suggests some of the roles required of English department heads and gives a few practical tips on how to cope with them. (AEA)

Reports on a survey that sought data on three major kinds of variables with respect to English department heads: those contributing to administrative workload, those tending to reduce it or compensate in kind, and those compensating monetarily. (Author/GT)

Describes how chairs of English departments can help their departments prosper in economic hard times. (SR)

Offers basic principles for English department fundraising: know why people should give money to the department; identify several colleagues who can help represent the department to potential givers; involve alumni; work on getting grants while pursuing private gifts from donors; create a print representation of the department; and cultivate a…

Describes how the author survived for more than a quarter of a century as a minor university administrator by applying a "schizoid narrativizing strategy" to the art of running, and being run by, an academic department. Notes that established written departmental procedures are indispensable. Discusses briefly the state of the academic economy.…

Describes the author's department goals with three main principles: to build departmental community, to harness rather than dissipate energy, and to address multiple audiences simultaneously. Discusses how she communicates to the college as a whole what the department does well and finds ways in which caring for the department's interests might…

Traditional priorities of English as a discipline are now significantly at odds with the material circumstances of college English departments. To address these realities, college English needs to become literacy studies rather than literary studies.

A survey of what English department chairpersons look for from reading specialists. (RB)

Describes the evolution of the multiple English department, sets forth "commandments" for English department chairpersons, and points to qualities of the ideal department chairperson. (GW)

A Paper presented at annual conference of National Association for the Teaching of English (7th, University of Exeter, England, April 10-13, 1970). (RD)

Describes a program in which a department chairperson gains released time for volunteers from a full-time faculty to serve as administrative associates. Discusses such a procedure at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. (AEA)

Describes the management appropriate to different kinds of new curricula within the English program and urges the department chair to assume intellectual, as well as managerial leadership of the department. (HOD)

Exposes the myth of the department chairperson as omnipotent. Demonstrates that by identifying the common interest of the myriad components of an English department, a chairperson can unify them into a successful, dynamic department by power of the faculty members themselves. (HTH)

Examines differences between a department chairperson and a department head, changes in the author's English department since he became department chairperson, ways a chairperson can gain departmental support for proposals, and problems and gratifications of being a department chairperson. (GT)