Fostering Collaboration Among Middle-School, High-School, and College Teachers

full name / name of organization: 
Kansas Association of Teachers of English
contact email:

Although Common Core significantly alters how middle and high schools teach writing, most college-level writing teachers know little about these changes, including the restrictions and responsibilities imposed on middle- and high-school writing teachers. Should college-level instructors know more about these mandatory standards that will shape their incoming college students?

The converse is also true: because public school teachers must focus so intensely on standardized assessment results, those teachers have limited time to focus specifically on what college instructors expect from incoming students. Should 6-12 writing teachers be less concerned about the assessments and concentrate more on building specific skills for college writing?

This issue of Kansas English is intended to start a conversation across the boundaries that often separate teachers in middle-school, high-school, and college writing programs. How can we collaborate across institutions and support each other more effectively? To what extent should a student’s writing education be a planned series of steps, with each program from middle-school through college deliberately integrated into what comes before and after? How might such collaboration and planning benefit students? Or might such a tightly planned curriculum harm do more harm than good? How can we come together to help our students develop the writing skills they need for the 21st century?

Submissions Due: June 1, 2014

Send submissions to or

cfp categories: