Summarizing the results of informal discussions among the commissions and standing committees of the National Council of Teachers of English, this paper outlines key educational trends and issues in areas of the English language arts. Various sections of the paper contain information from the commissions on English language, literature, composition, reading, media, and curriculum, and the standing committees on research and censorship. Among the trends and issues discussed are the following: (1) the positive development of collaborative research involving classroom teachers, (2) the disappointingly narrow applications of computers in teaching English, (3) the discouraging decline of pluralistic themes in literary texts, (4) the disturbing increase in use of computer software in the teaching of literature, (5) the unfortunate mandated use of anthologies and standard textbooks in literature instruction, (6) the dangerous proliferation of achievement testing, (7) the moderately heartening increase in required writing samples on English achievement tests, (8) the failing efforts to encourage holistic and meaning-making approaches to students and their language, (9) the poor preparation of teachers in media literacy, (10) the negative trend toward segmenting knowledge in the curriculum, (11) the need to integrate the teaching of language arts at all levels, (12) the alarming exclusion of humanities in curricula, (13) legislative interference in the formation of effective curricula, (14) the need for classroom practices that reflect the insights of research, and (15) censorship of literature and emended or bowdlerized school texts. (HTH)