The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk has been awarded a $9 million grant from the Texas Education Agency to launch the Texas Writing Initiative, a statewide professional development center tasked with improving writing instruction in the secondary grades.
Major activities of the new initiative will include developing and deploying a series of professional development training sessions; developing a set of research-supported, guiding principles to be used when implementing a schoolwide writing program; and piloting writing programs in schools that pair state-vetted coaches with classroom teachers. The duties of these coaches will include observing and providing feedback, modeling effective instructional practices, mentoring, co-teaching, and working with school leadership to implement a schoolwide writing program.