SUCCESS STORIES

Evidence-based practice is a hot topic in the nonprofit sector. Foundations and nonprofit organizations are eager to define what works with more precision. The concept comes from the field of medicine and suggests that clinical decisions made by doctors should be backed up by data.

The concept makes intuitive sense but is actually quite rare in practice.  In the field of medicine, for example, authoritative sources ranging from the National Academy of Sciences to the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment have estimated that over half of clinical practice in medicine are based on concepts that have not been proven.

How do you teach kids to write?

The evolution of Writers’ Express is a classic example of how the evidence in the social sector often follows years of practice. Like many of the best instructional programs, Writers’ Express emerged from the classroom. Writers’ Express was founded in 1994 by Deborah Reck and Arthur Unobskey, two public school history teachers whose students were struggling because they could not read or write well.

After extensive research, Unobskey and Reck still could not find any sure answers to such simple questions as “How do you start teaching kids to write?”  “Which skill should come next?” and “How can you tell that your students have truly mastered the skills that matter?”

Ask the “write” questions

Setting out to answer those questions empirically, Reck and Unobskey started a summer writing camp for inner city students. The camp served as a workshop where Reck, Unobskey and their staff could try a range of instructional techniques and closely track students’ daily progress, homing in on what really worked and discarding anything that did not.

Through ongoing work in their camps and with schools, they developed sequential, systematic curriculum and methods that improve both teaching and learning. Students in the Writers’ Express program quickly build skills and acquire a passion for self-expression through writing. Teachers expand their capacity to develop their students as writers and critical thinkers.

“The secret of the program is teaching the skills in the right order and at the right time when students are developmentally ready and eager to learn,” says Paula Sinclair formerly of Writers’ Express.

Test, improve and repeat

Over the years, the Writers’ Express program documented its success in producing sustained skills improvement. Students have shown dramatic gains on standardized measures. After using the curriculum for just four months, the Springfield, Massachusetts Public Schools’ percentage of grade 3-5 students scoring at grade level jumped from 29% to 76%.

Before starting the Writers’ Express program, 85% of 8th grade students in New York City’s South Bronx Prep were not proficient on the New York State English Language Arts Exam. Three years later, 93% of students in that same cohort, now 11th graders, passed the New York State Regents exam in English.

Other schools have achieved similar strong, lasting results with the program. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences recently awarded $2.2 million to the Education Development Center, a leading research organization, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Writers’ Express grades 3-12 curriculum and methods. Preliminary results of the study are expected in summer of 2011.

Find partners to continue to develop the concept

This year, Wireless Generation, a leading provider of educational technology, purchased the curriculum and training divisions of Writers’ Express.

“Wireless Generation has steadily expanded to work with educators and students in more grades and subjects. With Writers’Express, we gain nationally-recognized expertise in writing instruction and a program that complements and enhance our ability to address English Language Arts,” said Larry Berger, Wireless Generation’s CEO and Co-Founder. “

Wireless Generation offers the financial resources, technological expertise, and sales channels that Writers’ Express had needed to expand its reach. The combined entity will serve more than 200,000 educators and three million students.

“Wireless Generation and Writers’ Express are well-aligned. Both organizations are thinking creatively about instructional challenges, and finding better ways to help teachers overcome them,” said Deborah Reck, CEO of Writers’ Express.

Gather more data

Evidence-based practice never stops asking hard questions and testing assumptions. The Writers’ Express Summer Program, which will now be named Summer Ink, will remain a nonprofit and will continue to serve Boston-area students. Summer Ink, which will be run by Paula Sinclair, formerly of Writers’ Express, will carry on the Writers’ Express mission: to give all students the power to explore their ideas, the skills to communicate them clearly, and the conviction that the world wants to hear them.

Project Name: Writers’ Express
Grantee: Writers’ Express
Project Location: Massachusetts, New York
Grantmaker: Clipper Ship Foundation, Dolphin Trust, A.C. Ratshesky Foundation

For More Information Contact:

Yasmin Shah, A.C. Ratshesky Foundation c/o GMA Foundations 617-426-7080
Paula Sinclair, Executive Director Summer Ink. 617-844-1003