What has National Writing Project done for me?

Time after time I hear teachers confess that their association with NWP was what kept them in education. Inverness reports that 97% of teachers associated with NWP, stay in education for 17 years or more. 

Would I have left education without my association with NWP?  I vacillate between no, I am committed to the service of the profession and yes, I might have left by way of starvation. If NWP had not provided sustenance for my quest to improve my teaching, I might have become the worst kind of teacher, the one that stays in the classroom, but gives up on education.  The one time talking head in-service meetings and the PD360 videos that teachers in my district watch while grading papers didn’t cut it. NWP fed me by providing professional development that bridged the gap between the teacher education program at the university and the reality in my Southeast New Mexico classroom. 

What has NWP done for my students in Artesia, New Mexico?  My association with our local High Plains Writing Project and then the National Writing Project changed the way I taught. It validated my success as a teacher in a way that higher test scores in my classes didn’t. At HPWP I learned successful strategies from peers and as a result learned to make room for the students’ voices in my classroom. NWP introduced me to a network that demands rigor and depth of thought and because I was forced to think critically I learned how to help my students to think critically as well. 

My son once asked me what we do in all of those Writing Project meetings I give up my Saturdays and drive 90 miles to attend.  I told him we discuss what is working in our classrooms and communities.  We think about the future of education and support each other in projects to improve literacy. We read and write and think and share and in so doing, we become friends who support each other in less tangible ways.  We are all about learning and teaching, reflecting and changing, and teaching and learning. He looked at me while he thought about that then said “Gee, Mom.  I’m glad you found a bunch of people who like to do that stuff with you”. 

I’m glad that I found a bunch of people who like to do that stuff with me too:  People who really tangle with reform in education, people who are willing to grapple with change in our society and translate that in meaningful ways in classrooms and communities, people who value excellence in teaching and don’t assume that there is a quick fix or silver bullet for teaching kids to think. This is considered interesting dinner conversation among NWP teachers.  My son thanks NWP for providing a place for me to have that conversation so we can discuss other things over dinner at home.

Why is NWP worth salvaging in the federal budget?

We have come to a tough time in our nation.  Overspending and entitlement have pushed us into fiscal crisis. Looking at government spending more critically is incumbent for our citizens.  Our elected representatives don’t have an easy job jockeying competing interests that scrabble for support, but as we as a nation consider what we value enough to fund, and where we can afford to cut, I hope that innovative solutions to matters of national importance will survive. 

Senator Chuck Schumer from New York recently cautioned about cuts in discretionary funding saying “If you try to sort of squeeze all of it into a small portion of the budget, you’re going to cut muscle and not just fat.”  NWP is muscle.  It is both local and national in scope and doesn’t fit the blanket state block grant funding formula that serves as the funding stream for department of education funds.  The dinner that NWP invites teachers to partake in is a national infrastructure that provides support in acquiring and reporting on local site grants, collation of data, and a vehicle for peer review to be sure that monies are spent wisely.  They serve up print and digital resources for classroom teachers, opportunities for teachers to develop as leaders and venues for digital and face to face conversations about issues in education that have state, regional and national significance. NWP has grown and evolved and supported teachers across the country for 37 years and has done the research to prove that the professional development it provides is meaningful to teachers and translates into improved performance for students. In my 24 years as a public school teacher I taught about 1500 students.  When that is multiplied by hundreds of teachers at each of the 200 National Writing Project sites around the country the numbers take on national significance.  NWP is fiscally responsible. Seed money from national funding is matched by university and local funding to develop local resources which inform local work across the nation through the NWP network.  If this kind of simplicity in system models doesn’t excite you, go sit in front of the TV at dinner.

I don’t think that our lawmakers want to give up on education.  As they reflect on how to spend fewer dollars on educating an ever more complex population, I hope they consider the investment they have already made in NWP and recognize the significance of the national network and resources NWP has developed. I hope they value teachers’ voices and academic research enough to invite NWP into the national conversation about what works for our students and what doesn’t. And finally I hope they will pick up the check for dinner so that these conversations can continue to inform the work of teachers across the nation.