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Educational Programs That Work: Funding the National Writing Project

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On March 2, Congress removed funding for the National Writing Project.

The National Writing Project has a nearly 40 year track record of success. The program costs 25.6 million dollars, and reaches 130,000 teachers and more than 1.4 million students in over 3,000 districts. It also provides a great model of how a national program can provide structure and assistance for local programs without eroding local control. More importantly, it's a model of teacher professional development that scales, and National Writing Project programs help students learn.

National Writing Project logo

The National Writing Project makes an easy target because it is a relatively quiet, modest program. Despite nearly 4 decades of success, they don't use the hyperbolic rhetoric that marks much of the current discussion around education reform. They don't oversell what they do, or oversimplify the amount of work required to enact meaningful change. And unlike many of the newer crop of educational reformers, when they talk about helping kids learn, their conversation is shaped by people who have direct experience working with kids. People working with the National Writing Project tend to focus less on marketing their work, and more on actually doing the work of transforming classrooms through day after day of thoughtful, reflective practice.

By not funding the National Writing Project, Congress and the Obama administration are destroying the kind of programs they they claim they want to support.

The US Department of Education says it wants to fund programs with "the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of students." They want organizations that "have a strong base of evidence that their program has had a significant effect on improving student achievement." They are looking for "(e)xisting, promising programs that have good evidence of their impact and are ready to improve their evidence base while expanding in their own and other communities."

By unfunding the National Writing Project, the US Department of Education is working against its stated goals.

The work of the National Writing Project is subtle. Much of the success of the Writing Project, and the success of the individual teachers whose hard work has shaped the Writing Project over the last 37 years, is predicated on the idea that deliberate, repeated, thoughtful reflection helps improve learning. This idea is not flashy; the benefits of this work unfold slowly over time. The work of the National Writing Project lacks the silver bullet mystique of some of the other "reforms" now currently in vogue. The National Writing Project helps learners at all levels find their voice. It is a stark contrast to programs that believe that developing teacher expertise requires filling their head with an external voice.

The skills developed within teachers and students who work in the local Writing Projects cut across traditional curricular boundaries. Writing Project sites and teachers flourish in urban and rural settings, and in public and private schools. The skills developed through programs supported by the National Writing Project work to support learners of all ages. If we are serious about improving education, the National Writing Project is a program we should expand, not eliminate.

But for now, funding from this program has been cut. For next steps, you can contribute. Contact your representatives in Congress. Get involved in a local Writing Project. And: write.


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