[CBW_Exec] draft of CBW Social Justice Policy

Mon Apr 28 19:50:04 CDT 2008

Ah, great point. What can we make of/do with that 34 year gap between the original statement and today's call? Rhetorically? Politically? Practically? 

Shannon Carter
Associate Professor of English
Texas A&M-Commerce
shannon_carter at tamu-commerce.edu
http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/
903-886-5492

-----Original Message-----
From: Ashley, Hannah [mailto:HAshley at wcupa.edu]
Sent: Mon 4/28/2008 7:20 AM
To: Shannon Carter; Susan Bernstein
Cc: sanchezdeborah at yahoo.com; cbw_exec at tamu-commerce.edu
Subject: RE: [CBW_Exec] draft of CBW Social Justice Policy

I too approve of the spirit and the general rhetorical drift of this resolution.  Nice work!  I would want to "do" something with the fact that what we are doing is calling on a 1974 resolution.  That is, what does it mean in 2008 to be reaffirming that statement?

Hannah

Hannah Ashley, Ph. D. 
Associate Professor, Composition and Rhetoric Program, Department of English
Director, Writing Zones 12.5 (www.wcupa.edu/writingzones)
551 Main Hall, West Chester University 
610-738-0499, hashley at wcupa.edu
"If you're not terrified when you are writing, you're writing about the wrong things."  --Dorothy Alison--

________________________________

From: cbw_exec-bounces at tamu-commerce.edu on behalf of Shannon Carter
Sent: Sun 4/27/2008 2:46 AM
To: Susan Bernstein
Cc: sanchezdeborah at yahoo.com; cbw_exec at tamu-commerce.edu
Subject: Re: [CBW_Exec] draft of CBW Social Justice Policy

Wow! I can't think of anything to add and I agree: this work is indeed crucial. The revision Sonya has created of the CCCC/CBW Fellowship call for apps really foregrounds advocacy in ways this policy articulates. At least I think it does.

And I look forward to our discussion and, eventually (perhaps following revision suggestions), approval of this important policy statement. I also look forward to including such statements on our website.

What do you guys think? How do we feel about the wording, the spirit, and the goals of this draft and project?

Thanks,
Shannon

Shannon Carter
Associate Professor of English
Texas A&M-Commerce
shannon_carter at tamu-commerce.edu
http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/
903-886-5492

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Bernstein [mailto:susan.naomi at gmail.com]
Sent: Fri 4/25/2008 12:55 PM
To: Shannon Carter
Cc: cbw_exec at tamu-commerce.edu; sanchezdeborah at yahoo.com
Subject: draft of CBW Social Justice Policy

Greetings eveyone,

Attached and below please find a very *rough* draft of a CBW Social
Justice Policy.  As you'll see, NCTE presented a 1974 Position
Statement that dovetails with much of what we discussed at our
Executive Board meeting at CCCC.  By coincidence, the NCTE Statement
was presented in New Orleans.  Many thanks to my U of Cincinnati
graduate student Deborah Sanchez for directing me to this statement.

Since this draft is rough and percolating at once, I look forward to
our discussion about it on the list.  Please contribute any and all
revisions, questions, comments, concerns.  Given current material
conditions for students enrolled in Basic Writing courses, I advocate
for the urgency of our work-- and the open discussion that will lead
to addressing the widest audience possible for our concerns.

Warm regards and good wishes for the weekend,

Susan

Susan Naomi Bernstein
LaGuardia Community College

Toward Social Justice for Students Enrolled in Basic Writing Courses:
A Conference on Basic Writing Policy Statement

 We of the Executive Board of the Conference on Basic Writing have
duly noted the disparities in educational conditions for our students
enrolled in our Basic Writing courses across the United States.  These
conditions point to lack of adequate and sufficient access to
resources that would aid full matriculation to college, including but
not limited to:
? Insufficient access to preparation for college-level courses based
on systemic educational inequities in public schools
? Insufficient access to financial aid counseling
? Insufficient access to academic advising and personal counseling
Insufficient access to disability services
? Insufficient access to academic and fine arts courses that foster
and sustain students? growth in areas related to progress in basic
writing and

Further, we would suggest that students enrolled in honors programs
and other more privileged educational venues enjoy routine access to
such resources.  Equally important we must point out that those
students enrolled in Basic Writing courses often come from
underrepresented and underserved groups in higher education and
include African American, Latino, poor, working class, documented and
undocumented immigrants, and students with disabilities.

Basic Writing courses serve as a mirror to reflect systemic injustice
throughout US society. Indeed, the increased reliance on standardized
tests to track, measure, and reward ?academic progress? negatively
impacts students enrolled in Basic Writing courses. Such tests create
rigid categories of achievement that impede students? educational
progress.

As longitudinal research has demonstrated, higher education provides
sustainable long-term benefits for achieving individual economic and
intellectual goals, which positively impacts US society as a whole
(Attewill and Lavin; Sternglass).  With these issues in mind, we
advocate that educators for Basic Writing and administrators involved
with student success initiatives actively support and implement the
NCTE Position Statement ?On Support for Motivated but Inadequately
Prepared College Students? as suggested below.

On Support for Motivated but Inadequately Prepared College Students
1974
NCTE Annual Business Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana
Background

We believe that all colleges and universities, by the act of admitting
students, become responsible for creating conditions that will permit
those students to exercise their own right to learn.

Clearly, some students who are admitted and who desire to learn lack
adequate educational backgrounds to progress satisfactorily in
traditional learning situations, and many institutions of higher
learning are making little or no effort to help them. Be it therefore

Resolution

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English encourage
college and university administrations, and legislative bodies, to
allocate sufficient funds to provide individualized and supportive
programs for students who are motivated but inadequately prepared for
success in colleges and universities to which they are being admitted.

http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/curr/107455.htm

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