History

The New York City Writing Project (NYCWP) has been providing support in language arts and literacy education to NYC public schools and teachers for more than thirty-two years. Established in 1978 as the New York City site of the National Writing Project, we are a legacy site within a network of more than 200 university-based professional development programs throughout the country dedicated to teacher professionalism and the improvement of the teaching of reading and writing. The NYCWP's school-based inservice program began in 1981 when we received a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). This grant enabled us to establish the basic architecture of our professional development model, which includes the services of an on-site teacher consultant and after-school seminars and workshops. Teachers in Writing Project programs, many of whom work in the City's most difficult schools, experiment with active, inquiry-based approaches for using reading and writing across disciplines. We work to integrate technology and literacy and support the development of writing-intensive school environments across grades and subject areas. Underlying all our work are the principles and beliefs of the Institute for Literacy Studies. Over our 30 plus-year history, more than 15,000 NYC teachers have taken part in Project-sponsored seminars, workshops, graduate courses and special programs. Their work in the teaching of writing has reached more than 300,000 students.

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Goals

Our goal is to improve the teaching and learning of language and literacy in New York City public schools by increasing teachers' abilities to use writing as a tool for learning, thinking, and communicating. Through collaborations with teachers and schools, the NYCWP seeks to transform the ways in which writing and reading are perceived, taught, and evaluated in urban classrooms.

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Beliefs

The NYCWP believes that access to high quality educational experiences is a basic right and a cornerstone of equity. We believe that reading, writing, and thinking are interrelated activities that contribute to students' success in school, college, the community and the workplace. We also believe that the key to improving teacher practice and student performance in reading and writing across the curriculum is through developing stable, long-term professional development relationships with schools. We anchor our professional development model in the belief that teachers bring knowledge, expertise, and leadership to their practice.

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Results

The NYCWP's approaches to literacy instruction take hold. In the majority of schools where the Writing Project has been a presence for a year or more, student performance on standardized tests, including Regents exams, improves. Data from surveys and program evaluations reveal that:

• 99% of participating teachers gain concrete teaching strategies to engage students more effectively in reading and writing for a variety of purposes, and 70% use a range of these strategies at least once a week;
• 96% of participating teachers report that the NYCWP helps them prepare their students for the ELA or other Regents exams;
• 99% of participating teachers attribute to the NYCWP a growth in their own comfort with the teaching of writing.
• Scores of NYCWP students on pre and post timed writing prompts increased significantly more than those of comparison students for 6 of the seven writing traits and the holistic score (NWP scoring rubric).
• Students taught by at least three teachers exposed to the NYCWP model across a range of content areas made significantly greater gains than their peers on pre and post timed writing prompts.

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Membership

Participants in our summer and school-year programs are eligible to become members of the New York City Writing Project. Membership includes access to our teacher-to-teacher listserv and invitations to special events, writing retreats, and institutes.

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Funders

The New York City Writing Project has received funding from numerous sources, including Chase Manhattan Bank, the City University of New York, DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, JP Morgan/Chase, National Writing Project, the New York City Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Education, the W.T. Grant Foundation, The Rabina Family Fund and private donors.

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Contact

Nancy Mintz, Director
New York City Writing Project
Lehman College, CUNY
250 Bedford Park Boulevard West
Bronx, NY 10468

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