James R. Squire Award
2022 Recipient: Carol Jago
University of California, Los Angeles
Carol Jago has taught middle and high school English in public schools for 32 years and is associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and as chair of the College Board’s English Academic Advisory committee.
She has published several books, including The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis, With Rigor for All, and Papers, Papers, Papers: Handling the Paper Load. She has also written books about teaching the works of Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, and Judith Ortiz Cofer for the NCTE High School Literature Series.
Jago wrote a weekly education column for the Los Angeles Times; she continues to contribute opinion pieces to professional journals, newspapers, and online forums. She also edits California English, the quarterly journal of the California Association of Teachers of English.
She is an author on the Bedford/St. Martin’s AP Literature & Composition textbook and a consulting author to the HMH Into Reading and HMH Into Literature programs.
Jago has been awarded the International Literacy Association’s Adolescent Literacy Thought Leader Award and the National Council of Teachers of English CEL Exemplary Leadership Award. In 2020 the California Association of Teachers of English honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. A recent member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees NAEP, she currently serves on the executive board of the International Literacy Association.
“When asked how many books students should read in any year, my response is simple. More. Books are unique in their ability to describe and enrich human experience. The more we read, the more we know. And the more we know, the more we are able and inclined to make the world a better place.”
Overview:
The James R. Squire Award, formally called the NCTE Executive Committee Award, was established in 1967. In 1999, the Executive Committee renamed the award to honor former Executive Secretary, James R. Squire, for his contributions to NCTE and the profession at large.
This award is given by the Executive Committee in recognition of outstanding service, not only to the stature and development of NCTE and the discipline which it represents, but also to the profession of education as a whole, internationally as well as nationally.
Criteria:
The James R. Squire Award is a special award given to an NCTE member who has had a transforming influence and has made a lasting intellectual contribution to the profession. We remind nominators, nominees, and selection committee members that members of NCTE Conferences—CCCC, CEL, ELATE, LLA, and TYCA—are members, by definition, of NCTE.
Current NCTE Executive Committee members are not eligible for this award. Recipients for this award are not eligible to receive any other Executive Committee approved awards in the same year, nor in the following year.
The NCTE James R. Squire Award does not need to be awarded each year. This award should be bestowed only when the subcommittee decides that nominations warrant presentation of the award. Only one recipient will be selected each year.
Nomination deadline is May 1
Selection Committee:
The selection committee will consist of the immediate Past President and a committee of three Past Presidents of the Council appointed by the immediate Past President.
The selection committee welcomes nominations from NCTE members.
The James R. Squire award selection committee will select an award recipient and the Executive Committee will approve the committee’s selection at an Executive Committee meeting.
Award:
The recipient is honored at the NCTE Awards Session and receives a commemorative piece, a complimentary NCTE lifetime membership, and the following travel expenses paid to attend the NCTE Annual Convention: airfare, two hotel room nights, and three days’ meals reimbursement.
Application Deadline May 1
Please contact NCTEAwards@ncte.org with any questions.
James R. Squire Award Previous Recipients
2021 Carol D. Lee
2020 Linda Flower
2019 Kathleen Blake Yancey
2018 Charles (Chuck) Bazerman
2017 Sonia Nieto
2016 Arthur N. Applebee (posthumously) and Jerome C. Harste
2015 Kent D. Williamson (posthumously)
2014 Yetta M. Goodman
2013 Rudine Sims Bishop
2012 Miles Myers
2011 George Hillocks Jr.
2010 Mike Rose
2009 Frank Smith
2008 Donald H. Graves
2007 Kenneth S. Goodman
2006 Janet Emig
2005 Geneva Smitherman
2004 Courtney Cazden
2003 Shirley Brice Heath
2002 Louise Rosenblatt
2001 Peter Elbow
1999 Edmund J. Farrell
1980 Robert F. Hogan
1974 John Gerber
1971 J. N. Hook
1967 James R. Squire