Short answers, pulled from the story.
The National Council of Teachers of English was founded in 1911 by a group of educators in Chicago, Illinois, operating under the English Round Table of the National Education Association. They formed the organization in response to concerns that school curricula were too narrow for an increasingly diverse student population.
The NCTE is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Its stated mission includes promoting the development of literacy and the use of language to achieve full participation in society through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language.
The NCTE issues the annual Doublespeak Award, the Orwell Award, and the Intellectual Freedom Award, among others. The Doublespeak and Orwell Awards have been given since the 1970s. The organization also presents children's book and poetry awards, diversity awards, educator awards, research awards, and student writing awards.
The NCTE publishes a range of journals including College Composition and Communication, College English, English Journal, Language Arts, Research in the Teaching of English, Voices from the Middle, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College, among others. Teaching English in the Two-Year College was established in 1973 and is indexed by EBSCO databases and the Modern Language Association.
The NCTE currently reports around 35,000 members and subscribers in the United States and internationally. Its membership includes teachers from elementary through postsecondary levels, teacher educators, and English specialists in local and state agencies. The organization sponsors more than 120 regional, state, provincial, local, and student affiliates across the United States, Canada, and Asian countries.
The NCTE's Committee Against Censorship collects reports of censorship incidents from members and outside sources, tracks patterns in censorship, and helps develop rationales for teaching controversial texts. It also works to promote policies for literature adoption that reduce the likelihood of censorship and explores students' right to write.