ASSUMPTIONS OF THE NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT MODEL
  • Working as partners, universities and schools can promote effective school reform.
  • Teachers re the best teachers of teachers; successful practicing teachers have greater credibility with colleagues than outside experts.
  • Invitational institutes should involve teachers from all levels and disciplines.
  • Writing is fundamental to learning in English and the language arts and all other disciplines.
  • Writing needs instruction and practice from the early grades through university levels.
  • Because the processes of writing can best be understood by engaging in them, teachers of writing or who use writing should write themselves.
  • Real change in classroom practice doesn't happen all at once, but, rather, over time.
  • Effective professional development programs are ongoing and systematic, bringing teachers together throughout their careers to examine successful practices and current research.
  • What is known about the teaching of writing comes not only from research but from the practice of those who teach writing.
  • By promoting no single "right" approach to the teaching of writing, the National Writing Project allows for a critical examination of a variety of approaches from a variety of sources.

The 44,000 square mile region encompasses five counties with a combined population of approximately 80,000 and a student population nearing 16,000. Each county is a separate school district, the smallest with about 30 teachers and the largest with about 700 teachers. The student to teacher ratio is 17:1 but varies greatly from the remote rural areas to the more densely populated regions where mining impacts the local economies