The National Writing Project
Every student deserves a highly skilled teacher of writing. –National Writing Project
The National Writing Project (NWP) is the premier effort to improve writing in America. Through its professional development model, NWP builds the leadership, programs, and research needed for teachers to help their students become successful writers and learners.
Every student deserves a highly skilled teacher of writing. To that end, each of the almost 200 NWP sites conducts an annual Invitational Summer Institute, attended by some of the best teachers in the area. Together these teachers prepare for leadership roles by demonstrating their most effective practices, studying research, and improving their knowledge of writing by writing themselves.
After the institute, writing project teachers conduct project-sponsored programs in their own schools and in neighboring schools and districts. They attend to two purposes:
- developing teacher knowledge and leadership in their home communities and
- putting this knowledge and leadership to work to improve student achievement.
Collectively, across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands, NWP sites conducted approximately 7000 programs in 2009.
This model of summer and school-year programs supported by the National Writing Project is validated by NWP research. Studies of student achievement, both local and national, show positive results. NWP sites, all located on university campuses, serve over 100,000 teachers annually. NWP continues to add new sites each year with the goal of placing writing project programs within the reach of every teacher in America.
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