NCTE 100 Teachers Study
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is collaborating with the Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education (CLE) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on a new research project to amplify the voices and expertise of high school English teachers to illuminate how they make pedagogical decisions about texts and literacy instruction in their classrooms.
English teachers are inundated with information and resources from a range of sources that aim to influence their practice, yet they are often not consulted about how they make choices to meet
the needs of their students. Led by CLE Associate Director Dr. Jodene Morrell and Dr. Nicole Mirra, professor and faculty director of the UCLA Teacher Education Program, the insights gleaned from
the NCTE 100 Teachers Study will offer a direct window into the daily lives and complex work of secondary teachers that can inform policymakers and teacher educators.
The participants form an intellectual learning community of English educators from across the country (37 states + D.C.). They are utilizing a mix of qualitative diaries and monthly virtual cohort meetings to excavate the conditions and constraints that shape their choice of literature, their unit and lesson planning, and their perspectives on the purpose of English education.
The 100 Teachers Study was envisioned by NCTE Past President Dr. Ernest Morrell, who served as Director of the NCTE James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts, which is housed at CLE. Morrell believed that policy conversations must include the professional knowledge and experiences of teachers. NCTE is commissioning the study in honor of Morrell’s vision and with support from his wife Jodene Morrell and Mirra, his "Critical English Education" coeditor.
James R. Squire Office
The James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts
In August 2019, CLE became the new home for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) James R Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts, which had been hosted by the University of Michigan since 2003. The Squire Office publishes several policy briefs each year and conducts studies on key issues in the field of literacy education to inform policy and practice. In 2020, we initiated the research project, “The Teaching of Literature in 21st Century Classrooms” which involves the CLE Team and additional researchers from various universities.
For more information on the Squire Office, please visit the NCTE website and see the recent article from the University of Notre Dame Office of Public Affairs and Communication.
2025 - 2026
2022 - 2023
2020 - 2021
The three briefs for 2020 were shared at the second annual NCTE Leadership & Advocacy Summit (2021) and are available on the NCTE Policy Briefs website. The three briefs for 2020 include:
- Understanding Translanguaging in U.S. Literacy Classrooms: Reframing Bi/Multilingualism as the Norm by Dr. Cati de los Rios (UC Berkeley) & Dr. Kate Seltzer (Rowan University)
- Critical Media Literacy and Popular Culture in ELA Classrooms by Dr. Jamila Lyiscott (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Dr. Nicole Mirra (Rutgers University), and Dr. Antero Garcia (Stanford University)
- Racial Literacies in the ELA Classroom by Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz (Teachers College, Columbia University)
