Arthur Noble Applebee (1946 – September 20, 2015) was a researcher and professional leader in United States secondary education.
[1] In addition to his scholarly work, he also was lead author/editor on numerous series of English textbooks for both primary and secondary schools, comprising at least 35 volumes.
His life and accomplishments were honored by leading literacy scholars contributing 14 chapters to English Language Arts Research and Teaching: Revisiting and Extending Arthur Applebee’s Contributions,[2] a festschrift published by Routledge and by the collection of 22 memorials in Research in the Teaching of English.
As a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he did two years alternative service at the Child Development Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital.
They published joint work and are also notable as the first husband and wife to each hold the position of distinguished professor at SUNY (the highest rank for faculty).
[5] Applebee began his teaching career in England following a postdoctoral year as an evaluator on an OECD Research Unit at the University of Lancaster.
He returned to the United States to work for the National Council of Teachers of English, and then took up an associate professorship at Stanford University from 1980 to 1987.
[6] A number of his subsequent inquiries has continued to document the changing developments in curriculum and practice, including monographs for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and numerous journal articles.