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Communities and School Join Forces to Improve Student Writing
Story posted March, 2008
Results:
• In a professionally developed and scored writing assessment, eighth graders improved on average by one point on a 12-point scale between September 2005 and May 2006.
• Almost three quarters of students and all teachers characterized the writing coaches as either "helpful" or "very helpful."
In Berkeley and Albany, California, the communities and schools are working together to help students develop writing and critical thinking skills
WriterCoach Connection recruits and trains community volunteers to collaborate with teachers and work one-on-one with students, in class, on their English writing assignments to develop the writing and critical thinking skills they'll need in secondary school, higher education, and the workplace.
Before they begin coaching, coaches participate in two three-hour training workshops and observe experienced coaches in action. New coaches receive mentoring from experienced coaches and commit to weekly one- to two-hour coaching shifts. Coaches need not be writers, editors, or teachers, though some are. They include college students, administrative assistants, lawyers, musicians and even a tugboat operator.
In 2001, thirty five trained community volunteers and six English teachers began working with 180 students at Berkeley High School. Students started seeing the improvement these coaching experiences brought to their writing projects and grades. Teachers reported that with coaching, more students were completing and revising their essays-and that students' writing had improved.
The word soon spread about the results of the program. "This program really works. All my students have moved up a grade," said Berkeley teacher Alex Palau. Volunteers, many of them PTA members, also spread word of the program's success. Embraced by the community, teachers, and students, the program rapidly expanded from Berkeley's high school to its three middle schools.
In seven years, the program has expanded from 35 volunteer writing coaches working with 180 students in one school to 275 coaches working with 30 teachers in 64 classes in six schools, with plans to expand to a seventh school in a nearby underserved school district in fall 2008 or spring 2009. To date, we have served 10,800 students with 75,000 individual 20-30 minute writing conferences.
Our rigorous annual program assessment demonstrates that the WriterCoach Connection has had startling performance results. Almost three quarters of students and all teachers surveyed about the program in 2007 described the program as either "very helpful" or "helpful." In a professionally-developed and scored writing assessment, eighth graders improved on average by one point on a 12-point scale over the course of the 2005/06 academic year.
We've learned that engaging the community is a powerful tool in addressing the achievement gap, and that individual attention to a student from a caring adult is a crucial part of the equation.
Further information about this story can be found in:
http://www.writercoachconnection.org/
For additional information, please contact:
Robert Menzimer
Executive Director
Community Alliance for Learning
510.528.5066 (office)
510.813.3698 (mobile)
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