Chris Goering, Mike Thomas Visit DC to Promote National Writing Project
Posted by Chris Goering on 4/30/2008
Christian Goering and Mike Thomas visited with members of Congress in Washington on April 3 to help secure renewal of the $30 million federal grant that supports National Writing Project sites in Arkansas.
(Above) U.S. Rep. John Boozman, left, with Chris Goering and (below) Mike Thomas, left, with a congressional staffer
Goering, an assistant professor of secondary English and literacy education at the University of Arkansas, serves as interim director of the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project. He and Thomas, a teacher at Ramay Junior High School in Fayetteville who co-directs the local project's invitational summer institute, shared stories and insights into the work of the writing project with the offices of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Rep. John Boozman, R-3rd District.
The Northwest Arkansas Writing Project site at the University of Arkansas has been part of the College of Education and Health Professions since 1997 and is one of three in the state. Representatives of the sites at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Central Arkansas also joined people from sites across the country in the advocacy event.
The National Writing Project was started at Berkeley, Calif., in 1974 and now has more than 200 sites covering all 50 states. It is the oldest and largest professional development program in the history of the United States and is centered on two core beliefs: writers are the best teachers of writing and teachers are the best teachers of teachers. Currently, writing project teacher-leaders annually conduct more than 7,000 programs, serving more than 135,000 teachers each year.
Independent research by Inverness Research Associates has demonstrated that 97 percent of participants in the National Writing Project believe it is better professional development than they have experienced anywhere else.
Goering and Thomas shared personal stories from their writing project experiences with the legislators in addition to discussing research and the impact of the project on teachers in Arkansas.
Thomas told Boozman, "The writing project is a certain way of thinking about all that happens in a classroom. Teaching writing itself is nothing new. But teaching writing as a writer colors everything I do. For example, I have had my students write in genres ranging from something as informal as journaling to something as formal as a biography. I write these assignments with them and demonstrate my own writing trials and tribulations as part of the teaching process."
The National Writing Project Legacy Study shows that 98 percent of summer institute participants remain in education until they retire, with 70 percent staying in the classroom throughout their careers. This indirectly compares with the national average of 46 percent of teachers who leave the profession in their first five years of teaching.
"While the statistical data provide convincing evidence for would-be supporters, it is truly the thousands of stories such as Mike's that hold the most influence," according to Goering. "Students deserve writing project teachers in every school in every state."
Writing project teachers also have significant positive effects on their students, according to several studies. Eight studies conducted from 2004-2007 across National Writing Project sites in diverse geographic regions of the country show statistically significant gains in writing performance for students whose teachers participated in the project's programs.
Independent national scorings of student writing from the studies show that the improvement of students taught by teachers who participated in the project outpaces that of students in carefully constructed comparison groups. Finally, most writing project teachers are using and disseminating classroom practices that are statistically correlated with higher achievement on the National Assessment of Education Progress writing assessments.
The Northwest Arkansas Writing Project was started in 1997 by Samuel Totten, professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas, and has recently received notification of its 12th year of federal support totaling nearly $400,000. The College of Education and Health Professions and Department of Curriculum and Instruction have provided vital support in the form of faculty time, materials, space, press, promotion and other in-kind contributions.
With all writing project sites, the vitality of the site depends on a strong summer invitational institute, Goering said. Anne Lane and Jamie Highfill, co-directors with Thomas, anticipate an excellent, diverse and large group for the summer of 2008. Additionally, the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project offers professional development to teachers across the region through biannual mini conferences, open summer institutes in Van Buren, Mountain Home and Fayetteville, and on-site training at school districts. As an ancillary activity, the project supports and sponsors a successful Kidswrite summer writing program for students who have completed grades 4-12.
We want to hear from you. Please e-mail comments and feedback to Chris Goering at cgoering@uark.edu.