Development of a standards-based framework for the analysis of secondary writing curricula

The purpose of this study was to determine how the writing-related Standards for the English Language Arts, published in 1996 by the National Council of Teachers of English (NOTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA), could be employed as a framework for the analysis of secondary language arts curricula. The need for such a framework grew out of criticisms directed at the Standards for vagueness and lack of grade-level benchmarks of achievement. The study focused on the writing-related standards due to the importance of writing in many disciplines and professions and the results of research showing continuing need for improvement in student writing and continuing dominance of literature in secondary English curricula.;To construct the framework, the selected standards were first converted into questions to be asked of writing curricula and then analyzed by situating them in current theory, research, and practice in writing and writing instruction. That analysis yielded both explicit and implicit indicators that could be used to elicit evidence that a curriculum provides opportunities for students to meet the selected standards through writing. Those indicators comprised the framework, which was summarized in a table listing the writing-related standards, the indicators for each standard, and a reference to the appropriate section of the analysis of the standard for clarification or elaboration of an indicator.;To illustrate its use, the framework was applied to two published curriculum documents to extract evidence of each curriculum's potential for providing opportunities for students to meet the selected standards. The results of each application were summarized in the above described framework table with the addition of a column for evidence collected from the document.;The results indicated that the framework could be useful in the analysis of existing curricula for students' opportunities to meet the NCTE/IRA writing-related standards and possibly in the development of new curricula designed to meet those standards. The framework could also potentially be useful in teacher education, providing teacher educators with a summary of issues inherent in the teaching of writing situated in theory, research, and practice.