A survey of the status of oral communication in the K-12 public educational system in the United States

This article summarizes the results of a survey sent to State Directors of Education to determine the nature of oral communication in state standards/ requirements in K-12 education. State directors were asked to indicate the role and importance of oral communication in their statewide curriculum. Th irty states reported requiring oral communication as part of an integrated language arts curriculum, while only one state reported no statewide standa rds of any kind for oral communication. Only two states reported oral commu nication is included in state standards separately from language arts. Twel ve states reported exit level testing (or competencies to be met/performed) of graduating high school seniors which included oral communication in som e form. This article concludes with a recommendation that communication edu cators become proactive in assisting state language arts consultants in the ir development of standards and materials for teaching oral communication i n order to ensure the communication discipline is well represented in K-12 curriculum.