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About the National
Writing Project
The National Writing Project 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 nearly 200 NWP sites conducts an annual summer
institute, attended by the most experienced 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
7,288 programs in 2005.
This model of summer and school-year programs, designed and
supported by the National Writing Project, is validated by NWP
research. Studies of student achievement, both local and national,
show positive results. Importantly, NWP sponsors research directed
by local sites as well as research targeted at key educational
concerns, for example, how to support new teachers or how to support
teachers, grades 4-12, in their efforts to improve students' reading
and writing for academic purposes.
NWP sites, all located on university campuses, serve over 141,000
educators annually. NWP continues to add new sites each year with
the goal of placing the writing project within reach of every
teacher in America.
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