Chapter 4: Project English and the 1960s

In this chapter, we examine the subsequent period after the NCTE received initial federal funding in 1961. The funding developed Project English and paid for curriculum centers, teaching training opportunities, and research into the teaching of English. As that research continued, the NCTE politicized the poor state of the teaching of English with another report, The National Interest and the Continuing Education of Teachers of English in 1964. That document, along with additional lobbying efforts, helped spur English’s inclusion into NDEA revisions in 1964. This in turn spawned more research and more opportunities for teachers trained in the specific disciplinary focus that reflected the tripod curriculum of language, literature, and composition. The research and curricular push continued with the 1966 Anglo American Conference on English at Dartmouth where English educators from Great Britain, Canada, and the United States met to discuss issues in teaching. Instead of finding similarly thinking educators, many American NCTE members found themselves debating the merits of their reforms against British educators who recommended studentcentered curricular goals that more closely matched earlier 20th century NCTE positions on English. Following the conference, teaching reforms in English gradually began to shift back toward that of pre-Sputnik reforms, as represented by the popularity of the student-centered secondary English elective curriculum reform model adopted during the late 1960s.