Words on Paper, by Nina Hurwitz and Sol Hurwitz
After years of being sidelined, student writing shows signs of moving to the center of the education policy agenda. Increasingly, decision makers are recognizing that effective writing is fundamental to learning and communication and therefore vital to success in education and the workplace. But the federal No Child Left Behind Act's stringent mandates for testing in reading and math are creating a serious shortage of time and resources for teaching writing. What's more, if the ability to write clearly and correctly is the hallmark of an educated person, recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other groups depict nothing less than a writing crisis in the nation's classrooms:
* Most students are poor writers. July 2003 NAEP test scores show that fewer than one in three of the nation's fourth-, eighth-, and 12th-graders are proficient in writing -- that is, capable of composing organized, coherent prose in clear language with correct spelling and grammar. Only 24 percent of high school seniors achieved that goal.
* Teachers themselves lack writing skills. Only a handful of states require courses in writing for teacher certification, even for elementary school teachers, and few of the nation's public school teachers have taken after-school, weekend, or summer courses in writing or the teaching of writing.
* Students rarely receive rigorous writing assignments, even in English class. NAEP reports that nearly all elementary school students (97 percent) spend three hours a week or less on writing, about 15 percent of the time they spend watching television. Only half of high school seniors (49 percent) receive writing assignments of three pages or more for English class, and then only once or twice a month.
* Employers and college professors decry the quality of writing among their new employees and students. In a 2002 Public Agenda survey, more than 70 percent of employers who hire recent high school graduates and college professors who teach freshmen and sophomores rated public high school graduates "fair" or "poor" on writing.
A plea for national reform in writing instruction came in April 2003 with publication of The Neglected "R": The Need for a Writing Revolution, a 40-page blueprint for strengthening student writing. The report was prepared by the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, a blue-ribbon panel of superintendents, teachers, and university leaders, organized by the College Board and aided by a group of writing experts. Former U.S. Senators Bob Kerrey and Alan Simpson are leading a campaign to implement its proposals.
"Of the three 'R's,'" the statement declared, "writing is clearly the most neglected." Chief among the panel's prescriptions: Double the amount of time devoted to student writing and urge the federal government, the states, and local school boards to provide the funds needed for the additional time and personnel.
What's more, the report said, state education policy should require a writing plan in every school district. (See the sidebar on page 19.)
"We're trying to be a voice that says writing is important," Kerrey, who is now president of New School University in New York City, said in an interview in his office in September 2003. The teaching of writing, he believes, requires small classes, talented teachers -- and time. Experts agree on how to improve writing, he said. "We just have to insist that both the time be given to it and the money allocated to it."
Twin problems
That won't be easy. Despite high-minded words from national leaders, states and school districts are saddled with the twin problems of burgeoning federal mandates, such as NCLB, and dwindling federal support. In fact, conditions may be getting worse, not better. As one teacher told us, "Every year I have more students in my classes. State tests restrict my curriculum and reduce the time available for creative or extended writing projects -- the kind that really promote in-depth learning. I have required meetings to attend and a flood of e-mails to answer. That means less time to read my students' papers and respond to them. There are only so many hours in a day."
Even so, assigning more writing does not guarantee that students will write better. A 2001 evaluation of standards-based reform funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that improvements resulted only "when teachers had a clear idea of what effective [writing] instruction looked like, together with sufficient professional development and support to learn new ideas and put new practices in place."
One measure of the concern about writing is the increasing number of states that now require students to pass a writing test for graduation. Also, starting in 2005, both the SAT and the ACT will include writing in their college admissions exams. Drilling for these high-stakes writing tests commands a growing amount of time in class and after school, however, without necessarily improving writing proficiency.
Despite these problems, many school districts and schools are moving in the right direction. Supportive school boards are allocating resources for student writing and teacher professional development anchored in the latest research. Many are moving to institute writing across the curriculum. Creative teachers are discussing strategies, sharing materials, and cooperating on student writing assessments in order to enrich the writing environments in their schools. Grade-level committees are grappling with specific student writing deficiencies and planning assignments to foster creativity. A notable success story is Hudson Public Schools, near Boston, where superintendent Sheldon H. Berman is using writing as a vehicle for achieving higher standards and districtwide reform.
Clearly, teachers are the key to improving student writing, and programs abound for teachers who want to hone their skills in writing instruction. The National Writing Project, for example, believes in "teachers teaching teachers." With 12,500 teacher-leaders at 170 local sites in all 50 states, the project annually serves some 100,000 teachers in all grades and all disciplines -- an impressive number but still only a fraction of the nation's 3 million public school teachers.
Writing without fear
What techniques work best in the classroom? Researchers have found that "prewriting" to generate a free flow of ideas, along with writing in a variety of genres -- such as journals, interviews, letters, and poetry -- can help overcome anxiety, enhance learning and understanding, and develop a student voice.
"The most important thing is to get students to write without fear -- to understand that everyone struggles," says Jeff Berger-White, an English and creative writing teacher at Deerfield High School, outside Chicago. "With informal writing, you can track how students are thinking, and by breaking the assignments down into manageable tasks, [you can make them] less forbidding." Such techniques allow students to write spontaneously, ask questions, and draw connections from their own lives. Moreover, in a comfortable classroom setting, students are more willing to share their ideas and respond to one another's work.
Although the teacher guides the process, prewriting is ungraded and involves writing for oneself as opposed to writing on demand for a teacher or tester. "Writing is too often connected to testing and tucked in at the end of the school year," says Ed Osterman, a former English teacher who is now a staff development consultant with the New York City Writing Proj-ect at Lehman College. "There is not enough time -- or no time -- for prewriting or revision."
John Esposito, a veteran English teacher at Mamaroneck High School, north of New York City, believes students should "think on paper" in all subjects. "Writing," he tells his students, "is the inking of your thinking."
Unfortunately, most teachers in disciplines other than English are reluctant to integrate writing into the curriculum. "They tend to believe that 'writing is not my job,'" says Vicki A. Jacobs, associate director of the teacher education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Teachers are more willing to encourage writing, she says, "when they see how it can support their goals for instruction and increase their students' understanding of content."
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), an organization of 60,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, is addressing these issues through its Writing Initiative, a program launched this past fall for administrators, parents, and teachers in all disciplines. One element of the multifaceted program helps schools and school districts develop writing plans and policies. Participants examine the writing practices of their schools or school districts to determine whether they are in line with instructional goals and are advised on how best to evaluate those practices. They also learn what the latest research says about writing and the teaching of writing, according to NCTE Executive Director Kent D. Williamson.
Teaching the teachers
Writing experts are unanimous that good writing, like high performance on a musical instrument, involves practice, practice, and more practice. "If students are to make knowledge their own, they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can communicate to someone else," The Neglected "R" asserts. "In short, if students are to learn, they must write."
If high school students don't develop the habit of writing and revising, they pay the price when they arrive at college. Phyllis B. Katz, a lecturer in classics at Dartmouth, who teaches a freshman writing seminar, says that most of the students she teaches do not understand what revision entails. They believe it means "incorporating the teacher's corrections and handing in the paper for a new grade," she says. But when students revise, they should ask themselves: "What is my major argument? Have I developed it coherently and supported it with sufficient evidence? Does my paper sustain its focus?" Revision, Katz says, is an issue that secondary school teachers must confront.
Some are doing just that. In 1982 Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., launched the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking, offering professional development workshops for high school teachers that emphasize focused prewriting and revision. The institute, which has trained some 50,000 high school and college teachers since its founding, was started in response to a growing concern that writing by incoming freshmen was lacking in thought and content.
"They were able to write a paper that was correct in terms of structure and spelling, but they had absolutely nothing to say," recalls Susan Kirschner, a lecturer in Humanities at Lewis and Clark College, who has been an associate of the Bard institute since 1985. Bard also conducts required writing workshops for its incoming freshmen with demanding reading assignments that stimulate the kind of inquiry that leads to thoughtful writing.
A daunting challenge for many teachers is the burden of evaluating student writing. Whether the assignment is a brief essay or a lengthy research paper, teachers are hard-pressed to read and grade student writing thoroughly and to provide the necessary discussion and feedback. In subjects other than English, the pressure to cover the subject matter discourages many teachers from giving extensive writing assignments. According to a November 2002 survey commissioned by the Concord Review, eight out of 10 responding history and social studies teachers say they can't find time to read and grade lengthy term papers; yet nearly all of them (95 percent) say it is important or very important to assign such papers.
Even if they have sufficient time to teach writing, teachers don't agree on how to assess it. Moreover, a lack of training, experience, and confidence leaves many teachers ill equipped to evaluate their students' work. As with writing itself, assessment "should have an instructional purpose, not simply an evaluative or administrative one," writes Carl Nagin in Because Writing Matters (Jossey-Bass, 2003), a publication sponsored by the National Writing Project. Assessment, he believes, "should identify and diagnose a specific problem in student writing or adjust a lesson plan to meet student needs as they are uncovered."
There is wide agreement that a portfolio -- a collection of student writing over time -- is a valuable measure of progress and growth and is therefore preferable to a single writing test. But it takes time to collect and evaluate student portfolios, and unless teachers have a reasonable class load, time is exactly what they don't have. Moreover, the portfolio approach works best when teachers consult with one another to develop valid rubrics, or scoring criteria.
"Good assessment is a series of conversations," says David Allen, director of evaluation at the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. "Teachers need to develop standards together," and those standards must be aligned with the curriculum and explained to students.
As for spelling and grammar, artful teachers tend to avoid old-fashioned spelling drills and exercises in diagramming sentences in favor of assignments that grow out of mechanical errors in students' written work. "You have to pick your battles," Allen says. What's crucial is to "look at kids' papers and find out what they're doing right. Do they get the big ideas, or is their meaning obscured by surface errors?"
The influence of technology
Experts in writing instruction find that widespread computer use has proven a mixed blessing in teaching and assessing student writing. When they are accurate, spelling and grammar checks can make it easy to revise the mechanics of a written piece. But students often come to depend on these fallible technological aids and don't allow enough time for planning, correction, and reflection. Technology can work against effective writing in other ways as well. E-mail, for example, fosters instant and spontaneous communication but encourages an abbreviated form of expression that impedes the development of thoughtful writing. The Internet widens the scope and speeds the pace of research but tempts students to "cut and paste" from questionable Web sites.
A larger issue -- and one that also cuts both ways -- is the broadening definition of literacy. Research assignments increasingly incorporate a combination of text, film, and video. Filmmaker George Lucas, a proponent of "multimedia literacy," believes that if students fail to learn "the language of sound and images," they should be considered as illiterate as if they are unable to read or write. In a Nov. 9, 2003, article in the New York Times Education Life supplement, he argues that because modern corporations make wide use of electronic technology, students need firsthand experience with such media "to function in the modern world."
But many educators -- Deerfield High School's Jeff Berger-White for one -- strongly disagree. "I'm the stodgy traditionalist," says Berger-White, who puts a premium on daily practice in the physical act of writing. "Education has bought the technology of business to its detriment. It looks good. It's fun. It's polished. It may be a way to get students engaged, but it's not necessarily learning. The belief that technology is learning is dangerous ground."
A new development is the introduction of online technology for teaching, evaluating, and grading student writing. Criterion, a learning application developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) and delivered by the Internet, provides holistic scores and diagnostic feedback on student writing. For teachers, the program is intended both to relieve the burden of grading student essays through an automated scoring system and to provide online analysis of student writing. "We've designed Criterion specifically to be a helper -- not a replacement" for the teacher, says Richard Swartz, executive director of product development and research applications at ETS.
Diana Schmelzer, principal of University High School in Irvine, Calif., says her teachers have been using Criterion to benchmark student performance, since it gives them immediate access to a large sample of scored essays. "At a glance, we can make determinations of student performance levels," she says. Students, too, can use this analysis to make revisions and assess their progress.
In the end, though, the technology for writing, be it pen or PC, will still depend on a student's power of analysis and creativity. And improving writing instruction will still require well-trained teachers who can sharpen their skills through ongoing professional development; small classes that allow teachers time to connect personally with students; and school boards willing to invest additional resources to broaden their students' opportunities for learning and strengthen their academic performance.
Nina Hurwitz taught high school social studies in the Westchester County (N.Y.) public schools. Sol Hurwitz is a freelance education writer and consultant. Their last article for American School Board Journal, "Is the Shine Off the A.P. Apple?" appeared in March 2003.
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