Kevin Moberg, assistant professor of English and education at Dickinson State University (DSU), has been selected by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to serve as an NCTE/CAEP program reviewer. CAEP is the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, the national accrediting agency for all teacher education programs.

As an NCTE/CAEP program reviewer, Moberg will be assigned to examine the English education programs of institutions seeking accreditation by CAEP. He will help determine whether such programs meet the NCTE standards for training secondary English teachers.

Moberg was one of a dozen persons nationwide selected this fall to serve in this role. On Nov. 15, they gathered in Houston, Texas, for training that was conducted in tandem by NCTE and CAEP.

While in Houston, Moberg also attended the NCTE annual convention, held Nov. 15-18, and the annual ALAN workshop, held Nov. 19-20. ALAN is the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE.

The convention’s conference sessions offered Moberg the opportunity to collaborate with English professionals from across the country, exchanging ideas for teaching writing, literature and linguistics courses at the university level. He also attended sessions related to training future teachers of secondary English language arts, which is one of his responsibilities at DSU.

This past summer Moberg was appointed as North Dakota’s college representative on the governing board of the North Dakota Council of Teachers of English (NDCTE). At the convention in Houston, he met with college representatives from other states to plan their interstate initiatives for the next year.

During the ALAN workshop, Moberg and other workshop participants heard from over 50 writers of literature for middle grades and young adults and met with many of them one-to-one for book signings. Notable presenters included Jarrett Krosoczka, whose graphic novel Hey, Kiddo was a finalist this fall for a National Book Award; and Elizabeth Acevedo, who won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for her novel The Poet X.

At DSU, Moberg teaches a course on adolescent literature; and through DSU’s West River Teacher Center, he offers professional development courses on adolescent literature to area preK-12 schoolteachers.

Moberg is a member of several groups within NCTE, including the English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), whose focus is on the preparation, support and continuing education of teachers of English language arts/literacy; and ALAN, whose purpose is to promote literature written for adolescents and to support teachers in utilizing it in their classrooms. He serves as one of North Dakota’s two state representatives for ALAN and, at the workshop, was recognized for his service in that role.