Writers in the Schools

Working primarily with low-income students, the main goal of WITS is to help close gaps in achievement and opportunity through enhanced literacy and creativity skills. This type of learning results in confident students who perform better academically.

Children and youth who participate in WITS receive high-quality learning, helping close the achievement and opportunity gap. WITS provides long-term creative writing workshops, integrated professional development for classroom teachers, practice and proficiency with the writing process, a private writing tour of an inspiring cultural venue, publishing and sharing original writing in classroom anthologies, and performing at readings and other community events.

For 32 years, WITS has revolutionized the way reading and writing are taught. WITS has ten (10) highly qualified administrative staff members , employs 190 educators and teachers, and uses approximately 120 volunteers annually, including interns, board volunteers, and event volunteers. The 190 part-time educators are classroom teachers and professional writers: novelists, poets, playwrights, and essayists with extensive teaching experience. Many are bilingual, have graduate degrees, and are published authors.

Collaboration is also fundamental to WITS’ success. In addition to partnering with local independent school districts, we work with a variety of institutions including the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, the Menil Collection, Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston Public Library, Discovery Green Conservancy, Houston Grand Opera, Society for the Performing Arts, and Alley Theatre. Replicating its success in Houston, WITS leads an international movement for creative education through the WITS Alliance, a consortium of 31 writers-in-the-schools organizations that indirectly benefits 100,000 children and teachers annually.

RAISING READING AND WRITING TEST SCORES – Dr. Scott, the leader of our third-party evaluation, assesses students’ knowledge and skills development through the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) standardized test. In order to compare WITS students’ test scores to those who did not participate in WITS, Dr. Scott collects test scores from a representative group of WITS students as well as a control group sharing similar demographics. Dr. Scott then compares and assesses the impact of the WITS program on those students’ reading and writing scores, finding that students enrolled in WITS consistently outperform non-WITS students.

IMPROVING WRITING SKILLS – Dr. Scott has found that students who complete the WITS program consistently demonstrate improved writing skills. By analyzing changes in writing samples from pre- and post-essays, both elementary and middle school students showed improved abilities.

ENHANCING CREATIVITY – The WITS program increases creativity levels in children. Expert raters independently score student pre- and post-essays with a rating system developed by Dr. Scott, examining such things as: effectiveness of expression, risk-taking, powerful voice, originality, unusual logical order, and lively details. Analysis of the data by Dr. Scott determined that the ratings were reliable and that the change in student ability demonstrated an impact on creativity levels.

IMPROVING SELF-EFFICACY– WITS students demonstrate increased confidence in their writing abilities. WITS measures the impact of the program on students’ writing apprehension and attitude by administering pre- and post-essays to a representative group of students. Evaluations have shown that the program positively impacts students’ writing self-efficacy, and the scores from 2004 to the present indicate that WITS students are more confident writers.

While WITS is proud of its many accomplishments and its ability to reach 28,000 Houston teachers and children each year, we still have many low-income schools on a waitlist and many underserved children waiting for the WITS program in their classrooms. In order to meet this need, WITS is the process of developing a new three-year strategic plan that will drive this expansion in schools, camps, community workshops, public performances, and national network initiatives. WITS is also developing revenue streams to support this growth and ensure participation from underserved communities and low-income schools.