Resources
Council books, journals, meetings, and Web resources help provide professional support throughout the many stages of your teaching career.
NCTE James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts
Housed at the University of Notre Dame and led by NCTE past President Ernest Morrell, who is Director of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Literacy Education, the James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts creates studies that advance knowledge and inform policy on teaching English language arts. The office’s name honors James R. Squire, who served as NCTE’s Executive Director from 1960 to 1967.
The Squire Office was first established at the University of Michigan in 2003 to support reform in English language arts education by providing periodical reviews of research and policy analysis. Former NCTE President Anne Ruggles Gere directed the Office from 2003 to 2016.
In 2020, NCTE relaunched the Squire Office at Notre Dame. The first policy briefs following the relaunch addressed the urgency in expanding literacy instruction to ensure students are prepared to thrive in a world that is increasingly globally connected and influenced by digital media.
In 2023, the Squire Office released three more policy briefs: Culturally and Historically Responsive Education, Culturally Responsive Approaches to the Teaching of Literature in Secondary English Classrooms, and Digital Platforms and the ELA Classroom.
In January 2026, the Squire Office released two new policy briefs, the first of which is titled Integrating Literacy across K–12 Health and Physical Education to Support Whole-Child Development. Authored by Dr. Kelly C. Johnston of Baylor University, this brief offers actionable guidance for those seeking to advance meaningful and effective literacy education while thoughtfully utilizing educational systems and resources.
“Johnston’s powerful brief urges us toward an integrated notion of mind and body for young people activated by dynamic classroom practices,” said Morrell, whose additional roles at Notre Dame include Coyle Professor of Literacy Education, Associate Dean for the Humanities and Faculty Development, and professor of English and Africana studies. “What do they look like in our English language arts classrooms? What do they look like in our physical education classrooms? How can well-being and literacy be coordinates that guide us across the curriculum? She also challenges us to think about the policy implications necessary to bring these transformations to our educational system.”
The second of the 2026 Squire Office briefs is Research-Practice Partnerships for Social Transformation: Democratizing Inquiry and Prefiguring More Just Scholarly Relations, coauthored by Gerald Campano, María Paula Ghiso, María Beatriz Pinto, and Yanil De La Rosa.
The authors write, “There will always be a tension between transforming inequitable systems and participating in them through RPPs. Whether or not a particular collaborative project or partnership defines itself, or is defined by others, as an RPP, the promise of this collective body of scholarship is its capacity to democratize inquiry, challenge extractivism, cultivate more reciprocal and caring relationships, learn from multiple ways of knowing and being in the world, and advance social justice. It also holds the promise of going beyond instrumental outcomes to nurturing something rarely discussed in educational research, policy, and practice: wisdom.”