Evaluation

Most of the evaluation of the work of the NWP of Acadiana is anecdotal. There are, for example, dozens of testimonials from Teacher Consultants about the positive effect it has had on their professional lives. It is not unusual to hear comments such as, “The Summer Institute was the single most important experience I have ever had as a teacher.” The fact that several members of the first Institute, held in 1989, are still active in AWP is evident of its ongoing viability.

Success is apparent in other ways as well. There are indications that AWP teachers produce students who have generally higher levels of literacy skills than do their counterparts from the classrooms of teachers who have not been part of AWP. Beginning studies of students who have had AWP teachers for at least three years in middle school and high school, tracking them as they move into college work, seem to show significantly greater success on the part of the students who have been in Acadiana Writing Project teachers’ classrooms. Conclusions about their achievements are drawn from their infrequent placement in English 90 and by their final grades in English 101 at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.