Need Cited for Secondary-Level Writing Instruction

With adolescents’ reading skills garnering increasing attention in school improvement discussions, a report released last week urges educators and policymakers also to address the need for effective writing instruction in middle and high schools.

The report, by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington-based organization that promotes high school improvements, outlines 11 components of writing instruction that have been shown to be effective in rigorous research studies.

The meta-analysis, conducted by Steve Graham, a professor of special education and literacy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and Dolores Perin, a professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, is the first review of experimental and quasi-experimental research on precollegiate writing...