RRVWP in Washington

The Red River Valley Writing Project is represented at the annual National Writing Project Spring Meeting in Washington, DC. And the above picture is proof ---(from left to right) RRVWP Director Kelly Sassi, NWP Executive Director Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, and RRVWP Teacher Consultant Karen

Taylor.  

The meeting began March 25, 2015 and concludes today, March 27. Here's a bit about the meeting:

Always an exciting event, the meeting gives Writing Project teachers and leaders an opportunity to share their classroom successes with members of Congress and with each other. (from NWP's website)

Teachers object to testing

   Conscientious objectors are people who refuse to serve in the armed forces on moral or religious grounds. But in New York, a teacher is looking to broaden the definition. Diane Ravitch writes on her blog about Rick Bobrick, a veteran teacher in New York who is tired of being forced to administer to students high-stakes tests that he thinks are punitive and antithetical to real learning. He wants teachers to have the right to opt out of administering standardized tests they think are harmful to students. As it is now, teachers can be fired for refusing to administer a mandated test. Why, he asks, shouldn’t there be a law protecting the rights of teachers to refuse to do what they know is wrong? Why not give teachers the right to be conscientious objectors?” (Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post Cheat Sheet)

Please take action on behalf of NWP

Senator Harkin (D-IA) will offer an amendment to the FY2013 Continuing Resolution that would among other things increase the SEED grant program to 3% rather than 1.5% which was the FY2012 level. The amendment will need 60 votes to pass so please call your Senate offices this week with the simple message ---“Please support the Harkin amendment to the CR that will be voted on this week.”

And, please email your writing project community to help get the word out. You can find the contact information for your Senate office here.

Feel free to contact us with any questions at publicaffairs [at]nwp[dot]org and as always, thank you for all of your outreach and advocacy!

(This comes from the National Writing Project)

NWP slideshow

This is a slide presentation prepared for the 2011 Annual Meeting of the National Writing Project, held in Chicago on November 17. This one-day meeting focused on developing strategies for the future following the loss of federal funding. The presentation begins with an overview of data showing the NWP's cumulative leadership development and work accomplished over more than 35 years. The presentation then focuses on why the NWP is so strong and well-positioned for its next evolutionary leap: it is a true networked organization. Networks have unique characteristics that make them highly effective. The presentation concludes with an analysis of the multiple forms of "capital" the NWP has accrued and is now able to draw upon as it defines its future, and with a summary statement that future investment should focus on stewardship and development of the network—the sites, the central offices, and the links among them all.

The above comes from the National Writing Project website. You can view the slideshow alluded to above my clicking the text above and then going to the bottom of the page where you land.

GOP candidates on education

Though education has played second fiddle so far to other domestic issues in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the narrowing field includes GOP candidates with compatible views on scaling back the federal role in K-12, but big contrasts in policy specifics and experience.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, is expected to put a strong emphasis on his own K-12 agenda and achievements—including such signature programs as the Race to the Top and a waiver plan for unpopular provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act—as his re-election effort gains steam. (Alyson Klein at Education Week)

Money possibilities

Several high-profile teacher-training and -professional-development groups that recently lost federal set-asides—from Teach For America to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards—will have an opportunity to recapture some of that funding under the terms of a newly unveiled $25 million federal competition. ("Programs Suffer Cuts in Funding," March 9, 2011.) (Stephen Sawchuk at Education Week)

The National Writing Project is referenced in article from which the above hyperlinked text comes.

Looking for a grant?

The Verizon Foundation is in the business of improving lives in literacy, knowledge and a readiness for the 21st Century.

Specifically, we help people to:

• Increase their literacy and educational achievement
• Avoid being an abuser or a victim of domestic violence
• Achieve and sustain their health and safety

Eligible organizations seeking grants from the Verizon Foundation must be prepared to track and report program outcomes as well as specific results that demonstrate measurable human impact. In the grant application, organizations must indicate what outcomes are targeted through programming and what results, as specified on the grant application, the organization will measure. (from the Verizon Foundation website)

Teachers are off to Washington

Today kicks off the four-day Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, a gathering and rally in Washington, D.C., organized by teachers who say they are fed up with test-driven accountability for public schools—and, increasingly, for teachers.

The group, which maintains that it is a grassroots, from-the-ground-up organization, hopes to send a message to national and state policymakers about their displeasure, as well as highlight a variety of principles for improving public education. The group has developed a series of position papers outlining its views on high-stakes testing, equitable funding for all schools, unions and collective bargaining, and changes to curriculum, among other issues. For the most part, the position papers aren't yet at the level of detail of formal policy prescriptions, and it remains to be seen whether such proposals will emerge from the gathering. (from Education Week)

Educators troubled by education policy

Thousands of educators, parent activists, and others are expected to convene in the heat and humidity of Washington next month for a march protesting the current thrust of education policy in the United States, especially the strong emphasis on test-based accountability.

Organizers say the effort aims to galvanize and give voice to those who believe policymakers, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and state governors, have gone astray in their remedies for improving American schools. Leaders of the march—current and former educators among them—say they’re determined to build a grassroots movement that has staying power beyond the gathering this summer and “restores” a central role for educators, parents, and communities in policy decisions. (Erik W. Robelen at Education Week)

Today is the day

On May 26, 2011, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) sent out a Dear Colleague letter in the U.S. Senate asking members to support increasing the Title II set-aside for national professional development programs, including the National Writing Project, to 5 percent. This letter is a Senate version of the similar House of Representatives letter from a few weeks ago.

Please get the word out to everyone on your list of supporters. Ask them to email or call their senators as soon as possible—by no later than the end of the day on Tuesday, June 9. (from the NWP Works! Ning)

Take action ASAP

May 17, 2011: Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) sent out a Dear Colleague letter in the House of Representatives today asking members to support increasing the Title II set-aside for national professional development programs, like the National Writing Project, to 5 percent.

We have only THREE DAYS to urge our representatives to sign the letter, so please get the word out to everyone. Ask them to email or call their representatives as soon as possible--no later than the end of the day on Thursday, May 19.

They should ask their representatives to sign on to the Miller–Van Hollen Dear Colleague letter that would make 5 percent of Title II money for teacher quality available for a competitive grant program for effective national programs like the National Writing Project.

Rapid response and volume of contacts are what matter here. Thank you for helping to get the word out about this opportunity to provide support for quality professional development for teachers in the FY 2012 budget.

Later on we will be in touch with more information and the list of signees. Please continue to share your questions and ideas with us at publicaffairs@nwp.org, and thank you for all you are doing to raise visibility for NWP.

The above comes directly from the NWP Works! Ning. To learn more, click here. And please take action!!

NWP Executive director Sharon Washington on C-Span

Tweeting for NWP

While President Obama calls for more education spending in the 2012 federal budget, the deal reached last week to fund the rest of the 2010-11 budget cuts more money from the Department of Education.

With earmarks eliminated and the Department of Education losing money this year, it’s imperative that we convince members of Congress to legislate the reinstatement of 2011 funds for the National Writing Project this week.

Before Congress finalizes the 2011 budget, and as it prepares for 2012′s budget fight, please continue your support for the National Writing Project by contacting your members of Congress and new members of both the House and Senate. Please use email, phone calls, blog posts, and tweets to offer them information about the NWP, a program that defies the stereotypes of pop #edreform and has – for decades – delivered real innovation ad results in the classroom and across the curriculum. (from Cooperative Catalyst)

Follow the hyperlinked text to the original post and you'll find a link to legislators on Twitter. That means you can tweet your support for NWP directly to many in Congress.

NWP at ASCD

The National Writing Project (NWP) trains teachers from all walks of life to champion authentic writing instruction in their schools and communities. Teachers who attend NWP institutes at sites across the country and complete inquiry projects in writing instruction become Teacher Consultants who help their students and colleagues find purpose and voice in writing across the curriculum and across media.

Why is the NWP in danger?

Congress cut the NWP because of its earmark status without regard for its incredible, cost-efficient impact on teaching and learning. In fact, the NWP reaches more teachers and students annually than this year's i3 federal innovation grant winners combined. Still, if the NWP is not reinstated in the federal budget as an earmark or as part of the Department of Education's budget, the NWP will be de-funded regardless of its merit and nationwide reach. If defunded, the NWP will face an immediate budget shortfall and local projects will have to scale down their operations, curtailing the future impact of the NWP.

What is #blog4nwp?

The #blog4nwp campaign is a grassroots movement of students, parents, and educators dedicated to the restoration of federal funding for the NWP. The campaign started in mid-March as a weekend blogging marathon and has since grown into collection of over 300 blog posts and countless, tweets, letters, and calls to Congress in support of the writing project.

(Chad Sasing at the ASCD blog)

Working for NWP

Think of the power and the potential goodness of a country where all citizens are well prepared to read and think and write. Please support our future writers: ask Congress to reinstate funding for the National Writing Project. (from A Letter to President Obama at Cooperative Catalyst)

To read the rest of the letter, click on the hyperlinked text above.

In Washington, DC working for us

Hundreds of teacher-leaders from the National Writing Project (NWP) are gathering in DC tomorrow to urge Congress to restore funding for the highly successful program. The teachers' annual trip to Capitol Hill has taken on a whole new level of urgency this year, as the recently enacted stopgap spending bill eliminated all of NWP's federal funding.

"The budget bill signed by President Obama on March 2 represents a titanic shift in the nation's decades-long commitment to improving literacy," said Sharon J. Washington, NWP executive director. "In one fell swoop the federal government defunded our most important and effective writing, reading, and teacher improvement programs. This is bad for the country on so many levels." (from NWP's website)

Red River Valley Writing Project co-director Kelly Sassi and teacher consultants Karen Taylor and Alissa Helms are in Washington this moment, getting ready to talk with our legislators.

Keep on

Here are three ways you can help influence our federal government to restore funding for the National Writing Project (NWP) before the next continuing resolution on budget expires on April 8th, 2011. (from Cooperative Catalyst)

Please consider taking action.

More about NWP's many virtues

I think the following four points from“Understanding the Effectiveness of the National Writing Project” say it better than I could.

• Writng is essential to learning.
• The NWP is already shown to be effective, innovative, and cost—efficient at improving writing.
• The NWP is able to accomplish this because it has built up a national
  Infrastructure of linked sites that build
  leadership and deliver local services.
• Federal support is vitally important to the NWP’s ability to continue improving writing. (from Hi, I'm Steve Moore)
  

Blogging for NWP a success

I send heartfelt thanks to all of you championing the National Writing Project and its vital work in professional development and the lifting up of teacher and student voices.

Below you will find listed the posts submitted as part of #blog4nwp. Our big blogging push will be over the weekend of March 18th, 2011, but I will certainly also include #blog4nwp posts from earlier in the week, as well as those that follow thereafter.

The above comes from Chan Sansing's blog The Cooperative Catalyst. To check out the blog posts about the National Writing Project, click here.

Blogging to save NWP

On March 2nd, 2001, President Obama signed a spending bill to keep the federal government operating during budget season. The bill cut federal funding to the NWP as part of a Congressional effort to eliminate earmarks – federal funds legislated to support certain programs like the NWP. While pork-barrel projects are, perhaps, easy political targets for elected officials looking to make names for themselves as no-nonsense fiscal conservatives, the NWP is not a pork-barrel project and it makes no sense to eliminate funding to the NWP, a program with a proven track record in raising student achievement that provides teachers and students with authentic opportunities for communication, inquiry, and problem-solving – opportunities to practice those deservedly ballyhooed skills our students need to be college-, community-, and life-ready.

The NWP undoubtedly deserves to be saved. (from Cooperative Catalyst)

This, a rebroadcast of the first post of this blog, is RRVWP's contribution to blogging about the National Writing Project to save NWP. (The blogging project was initiated by Chad Sansing at Cooperative Catalyst.) The history of RRVWP is a testament to the power of the National Writing Project and how that power contributes to learning in a particular region of this country.

The Red River Valley Writing Project (RRVWP) is one of over 160 sites serving teachers from all geographical regions, at all grade levels, across all content areas. As site of the National Writing Project, the RRVWP receives federal grant funds which are then matched by funds from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, the University of North Dakota College of Arts and Sciences, and the University of North Dakota Department of Teaching & Learning within the College of Education and Human Development. The goals of this project are to create a network of teachers who can share their success in teaching writing, to develop a community of teachers who are also writers, to encourage professional growth in the teaching of writing, and to improve the writing of students across the curriculum at all levels.

RRVWP's beginning is not unlike that of the NWP...a few people coming together to try to improve the teaching of writing in schools. At the University of California at Berkeley, in 1974 Jim Gray and a handful of colleagues established the Bay Area Writing Project, a university-based program K-16.

In East Grand Forks, Minnesota, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1999, a handful of colleagues established the Red River Valley Writing Project, a University of North Dakota-based program. UND English professor the late Dan Sheridan, his wife Judy, then an English teacher at East Grand Forks HIgh School, and Nancy Devine, a Grand Forks Public School English teacher, talked and met and talked and met some more. Ellen Brinkley and Carol Tateishi, representing NWP, came to the area to get these three teachers and a young writing project site up and running in 1999.

In just a little over 10 years, RRVWP has held summer invitational institutes, open institutes and advanced institutes, planned and implemented professional development, and sustained book clubs. But print hardly captures the relationships, laughs, sorrows, triumphs of our site, founded in 1999 by the late Dan Sheridan.

RRVWP is certainly about learning to be better teachers of writing as well as becoming better writers. But it's also about making it possible for teachers across content areas and grade levels (K-16) to connect so that they can do the essential, albeit difficult, work in our classrooms.