Understanding the National Writing Project

Date: March 23, 2010

Summary: This slide presentation aims to sharpen understanding of what the NWP is, how it serves the nation's teachers, and why federal funding for it should continue.

Inverness Research has prepared these slides for presentation at the 2010 Spring Meeting of the National Writing Project, in Washington, D.C.

Key Points

Inverness Research has studied the NWP for over 15 years. This slide presentation makes the following key points, supporting them with data from annual site profiles and teacher surveys.

There is a need for high-quality professional development

The National Writing Project is a significant federal investment in the improvement of teaching

• The National Writing Project is the largest-scale and longest-standing teacher development program in U.S. history.
• The NWP is not just another professional development "project." It is a national infrastructure of over 200 linked sites that span all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Federal funding of the NWP is not just another annual "expenditure." It is an investment that is cost efficient and generates ever-expanding capacity to serve teachers.
• The federal investment in the NWP infrastructure produces high-quality programs that lead to large-scale improvements in the teaching and learning of writing.

Continuous federal funding is critical to the NWP's ability to do its future work

• Federal funding enables the infrastructure to function.
• The NWP is already the kind of large-scale, effective program that the U.S.D.O.E. wants to support.
• A discontinuity in federal funding could put the entire infrastructure, built over 30 years, at risk

Related Resource Topics

• Research - The National Writing Project