Our partners have transformed their approach to student literacy and writing. Since 2002, we have partnered with approximately 50 schools, districts, and nonprofit organizations. To learn more about becoming a partner, please submit an inquiry through our contact form.
Madison Park Technical Vocational High School
Partnership: 2016 – 2022
“How do we prepare students to meet the complex, industry-specific writing and reading demands of technical and vocational professions?“
Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, a Boston Public turn-around school, provides training in 20 technical vocational programs.
Whether career or college bound, students need to be confident readers and writers: able to read dense technical manuals as an auto-mechanic or electrician, or document patient outcomes as a medical assistant. A WriteBoston instructional coach supports teachers as they build the literacy skills students need to succeed in their chosen fields.
Coaching has impacted early career and veteran teachers alike. A veteran teacher commented, “As an experienced educator, I really thought I didn’t need any assistance. Kelly has taught me different strategies on lesson plans, differentiated instruction, and assessments. [Coaching] allowed me to increase student achievement and instructional dialogue.”
Chelsea Public Schools
Partnership: 2015 – 2020
“How do we build capacity to support all of our students in grappling with complex reading and writing? What does this look like at every level of a school district: for teachers, coaches, and administrators?”
After six months with a WriteBoston coach supporting teachers at Wright Academy, the Chelsea Public Schools decided to think bigger. Why not transform literacy instruction across Chelsea’s three middle schools, so that every student has access to aligned and strong instruction?
District leaders knew it couldn’t happen overnight. More than that, transformation would require understanding and buy-in at every level. But together, the Chelsea Public Schools and WriteBoston designed a three-year plan to support students, teachers, coaches, administrators, and district leaders.
Initial feedback has been excellent. As one district coach wrote: “When I heard we had another trainer this year, I was less than thrilled. However, this is one training (and trainer) I actually learned from and walked away with immediate action steps, plans, ideas and resources to test out literally the next day.”
City Year Boston
Partnership: 2015 – 2019
“What literacy tools, strategies, and knowledge do City Year corps members need to support school communities and impact the students they serve?”
Nearly 200 City Year corps members work in 20+ Boston Public schools — reaching over 1,000 students each year. Corps members, young and passionate, often have little prior experience in urban education. To help them navigate their complex work in schools, City Year provides ongoing training to every corps member. When literacy was identified as a central area of need, City Year Boston called WriteBoston’s Director of Programming and Training, Jessie Gerson.
Together, WriteBoston and City Year developed a series of workshops based on core literacy practices and feedback from Corps members. And support didn’t end with workshops. To help corps members as they tested out strategies in their own schools, WriteBoston conducted classroom observations, hosted office hours for corps members, and provided thought partnering with City Year leadership.
Feedback from Corps Members has been glowing. Over nine training sessions, more than 99% of the 130+ volunteer respondents rated the trainings as “good” or “excellent” — the top two ratings on a five-point scale.
Five District Partnership
Partnership: 2015 – 2018
“What does good “grade-level” writing look like? How do we assess it, and how does that assessment guide instruction? How do we scale and align great instruction happening in one classroom to multiple classrooms, schools, and districts?”
The Five District Partnership (5DP) is an innovative joint education effort among the districts of Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Revere, and Winthrop to improve instruction and academic achievement. Born after research showed a high rate of mobility among students within the five districts, the collaborative has already made incredible progress.
WriteBoston’s relationship with the 5DP started small–with a series of summer workshops for teachers–but quickly expanded. To meet areas of critical need in literacy, WriteBoston and the 5DP launched a two-year project to design, pilot, and bring to scale argument-based writing assessments in middle schools across all five districts.
Funded by the Cummings Foundation, this project impacted an estimated 10,000 students. The work was spearheaded by a WriteBoston facilitator and a working group of coaches and teacher leaders from across five districts, who have continued to shepherd this work after the partnership officially ended.
Cove Davis, the 5DP’s Executive Administrator for Curriculum and Development, said: “WriteBoston has been one of our key professional development partners. Facilitators from WriteBoston are dynamic, experienced, and responsive to the needs of teachers.”
Boston Community Leadership Academy
Partnership: 2002 – 2015
At Boston Community Leadership Academy (BCLA), teachers and administrators alike credit WriteBoston with helping to transform the school’s approach to professional development.
Kelly Knopf-Goldner, a WriteBoston coach, worked on-site with teachers two days a week. BCLA educators say that Kelly has brought coherence and focus to teachers’ professional growth and classroom instruction.
Headmaster Brett Dickens said, “Before WriteBoston, I always found professional development to be discouraging for teachers – too many presenters with no credibility and no follow-up. Now, with Kelly, the professional development is institutionalized, planned, teacher-driven, and sustained.”
Greater Lawrence Technical School
Partnership: 2011 – 2014
Teachers at Greater Lawrence Technical School admit that they were somewhat skeptical at first about working with a WriteBoston coach. Many of them recalled frustrating past experiences with “expert consultants,” whose support was not tailored to their needs and rarely resulted in meaningful change to their practice. When Rebecca Steinitz began working with the faculty in the fall of 2011, she knew she had to deliver professional development that was relevant, customized, and actionable.
Two years later, teachers and administrators alike reported that their work with WriteBoston had a profound impact on teaching practice and on the overall culture of the school. Student writing grew dramatically in volume and quality. Teachers now hold students to high expectations for literacy, writing, and critical thinking, not only in English classes but in other academic subjects and in vocational classes as well.
