Changing the Teaching of Writing: From Cooperation to Collaboration
by Kent Williamson, NCTE Executive Director
July 2007 Council-Grams

Teaching writing and NCTE go together in the minds of many, and NCTE is fortunate to serve as the professional home of diverse and resourceful groups devoted to the advancement of writing. Yet even with the best efforts of our committees, commissions, CCCC, TYCA, the NCTE Research Foundation, CEE, CEL, and the Whole Language Umbrella, we reach only a fraction of the teachers, administrators, and policymakers who shape writing instruction today. So, to achieve our mission of improving the teaching of writing on a national scale, NCTE needs allies with specialized expertise and resources.

The Fieldstone Alliance outlines four keys to collaborative success for organizations, and plots how groups can move from cooperation, to coordination, to full-scale collaboration in their joint work. NCTE is well down the road with several other national groups who share our purpose and values regarding the teaching of writing, giving us more influence on national and local writing practice and policy. Here’s a quick summary:

1. Coordination:  The National Writing Project is a stellar organization that supports teachers of writing and sound writing practice. NCTE has cooperated with NWP on national policy advocacy, and on projects ranging from professional development to publishing to technology. We have benefited from hosting our annual convention at a shared site with the NWP annual meeting, and together, are able to support a vibrant community of teacher-researchers and activists.
 
2. Collaboration: The Council of Writing Program Administrators is a very active network of writing program leaders who work closely with CCCC and NCTE on a host of issues. Talks are currently underway about building resources to support the creation, or defense of, sound writing assessment policies and practices. In light of recent interest by the U.S. Department of Education in forcing higher education accreditation bodies to standardize their evaluations of university programs, this potential collaboration could be quite timely.

3. Cooperation: The National Advisory Panel to the National Commission on Writing. The Advisory Panel includes members like past NCTE President Patricia Stock, Jacqueline Jones Royster, Gail Hawisher, and Sarah Hudelson. The Commission was organized by the College Board and has published four reports and held hearings across the country on the importance of writing and writing instruction.

4. Collaboration: NCTE and IRA will be revising and re-releasing Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing later this academic year. Plans call for a joint task force to update the standards and add vignettes or classroom portraits of model assessment practices.

Alliances with both non-profit and for-profit organizations are critical to NCTE's success, but they can pose ethical and logistical challenges. An Executive Committee Task Force created NCTE Guidelines for Establishing Business Relations with Other Organizations which help frame decisions about proposed partnerships by outlining analytic steps that balance potential risks and rewards.

With the help of allied organizations, constituent groups, and NCTE members who care deeply about improving the teaching of writing, we are making progress. In an era where education reform proposals are ubiquitous, it is difficult to maintain the public’s attention on the importance of writing. By making this critical issue a central focus of NCTE publications, research, professional development, and policy advocacy, and reaching out to others, we are rallying support for a sustained investment of effort and resources into quality writing instruction