What we do
The National Writing Project focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation’s educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners.
In 2016, 185 Writing Project sites, based in universities nationwide, supported
3,000 new teacher leaders who joined a network that worked with
80,000 educators in classrooms and
2,000 youth-serving practitioners in museums, libraries, national parks, youth programs, and more
to strengthen thinking and writing among more than 1.4M students (pre-K through college).
My work with the Writing Project has been the best thing that ever happened to me. It has given me purpose and a place to serve where I make a difference.
How we do it
In 2016, local Writing Project sites revitalized teachers and built their leadership skills through the core work of summer institutes, on-site coaching, and local networks. More targeted programs achieved such aims as increasing youth civic engagement through writing and deepening programs to support English learners and their families.
How we do it
Design for Leadership
Our core work identifies and supports great teacher leaders. Leadership institutes mix it up, bringing together experienced teachers of different grade levels and disciplines and expanding the local cadre of teachers able to support their peers in pursuing educational excellence. Every year inspired teachers then lead additional programs such as College, Career, and Community Writing Programs (C3WP) which support youth in writing about real issues for real audiences.
“The best thing about C3WP is it creates a lot of student writing and the ‘worst’ thing is it creates a lot of student writing!” — Peter Reed, Teacher-Consultant, Louisville Writing Project, Louisville, KY
NWP’s online networks, research, and national programs continue to support educators’ enormous creativity and youth civic engagement.
In 2016 13,000 youth wrote and published letters to the next president.
Our news and resources reached 7.5M people on Twitter and
5M people on Facebook.
“I created a lifelong class for me that’s still ongoing [by] getting involved with organizations in networks like the National Writing Project.” — Meenoo Rami, Teacher-Consultant, Philadelphia Writing Project, Philadelphia, PA. From Transformative Teachers: Teacher Leadership and Learning in a Connected World (Kira Baker-Doyle, 2017).
The institute was filled with authentic professional and personal writing as well as research about our craft. I met peers who pushed my thinking and believed that all children were capable of incredible things.
The summer I first took part in an invitational summer institute (ISI) was life-changing for me. My whole philosophy of teaching transformed. It was 2005, and I had been teaching for 12 years, mostly first grade in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I was looking for a literacy-oriented postgraduate course that would lift the level of my teaching. Colleagues urged me to apply for a spot in the ISI through the Fox Valley Writing Project, based at the University of Wisconsin.
In the ISI, I met peers who also believed that all children were capable of incredible things and who pushed my thinking. The time was filled with authentic professional and personal writing as well as research about our craft. Most importantly, I learned the value of inquiry-based learning for myself and my students.
Returning to the classroom the next fall was exciting. I had new strategies for the writing workshops I led with my students and a deep empathy for them as authors. Thanks to the ISI, I knew firsthand writing was messy and personal; gratifying yet filled with stops and starts. The students and I grew together…
How we do it
Design for Impact
Research confirms that connected educators continue to improve their craft and stay in the profession longer. NWP’s legacy study showed that NWP teachers stay in education, on average for 22.7 years. Seventy-two percent of NWP teachers stay in the classroom; while others become principals, district leaders, and superintendents. Others enter higher education, becoming university faculty members and Writing Project directors. They connect a new generation of educators to the Writing Project network and each other through workshops, conferences, model lessons, and of course, invitational leadership institutes.
For instance, for the last ten years 7 Writing Project sites in Kentucky 
have delivered intensive (20+ hours) professional development to 4,800 teachers 
Provided events for youth, families, and whole communities to 13,600 participants 
And networked 2,600 teacher leaders across the state of Kentucky. 
“Well-designed professional learning communities, such as those instituted by the NWP, can integrate these elements [of effective professional development] to support teacher learning in support of student learning gains.” — From Effective Teacher Professional Development, Learning Policy Institute Research Brief, June 5, 2017.
The Writing Project changed me as a person and as a professional. It helped me to see my potential and that my potential can continue to grow. I have yet to find that level of growth and development in any other professional capacity.
My involvement with the Louisville Writing Project (LWP), which began with the invitational summer leadership institute in 1999, has been career-changing. Back then, I was a first-grade teacher, the first in my family to attend college, and I wanted to know everything that could help me be better at my work.
An early opportunity working with a university professor on an action research project had led me to deeper learning as a professional, but I didn’t know exactly where to go from there. After my first summer of work with K-university colleagues at the LWP, I felt ready to go back to my classroom and conquer the world! I was on fire to translate all I had learned about teaching young writers back to my practice as a first-grade teacher. …
Where we work
More than 180 university-based sites connect teachers nationwide to networks, resources, and research.
Support for NWP is provided by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, private foundations, corporations, universities, K-12 schools, local community programs, and individuals.