Although the roles director, co-director, tech liaison, PI, etc. show up at many sites, the designs for leadership at writing project sites are as varied as their settings. In this resource collection, we feature designs for leadership taken from local site leadership maps.
Leadership designs at local sites
The leadership designs included here all recognize that the local Writing Project site, at the highest level, is managed and 'owned' by the university that houses it. The university maintains contractual and fiscal authority and responsibility for the receipt of and dispersal of grant funds. The wise university, though, invests programmatic and intellectual leadership in the teachers and faculty who run the site.
In general, all sites are required to have a Director identified at the host university where a writing project grant is received. That director is often also the "PI", or principle investigator. In some cases the role of the PI may be performed by another individual. The Director is the central and essential accountability role for the project in grants management and reporting.
Sites should also have one or more Co-Directors from the K-12 schools in the site's service areas. The Co-Director is a significant leadership position, and some sites choose to recognize this by giving both Director and Co-Director the same titles. In other words, both "directors" or both "co-directors".) Typically, though, the Co-director is not an employee of the university and therefore does not the fullest set of campus-based responsibilities. Other titles, like Tech Liaison or director titles attached to specific programs, are common and valued at sites. Their use and areas of responsibility vary, as you will see in the various org charts included in this resource collection.
"Members" as leaders at local sites
Finally, the most common name for members of a writing project site is Teacher Consultant. Teacher Consultant (TC) refers to individuals who have completed the Invitational Summer Institute and are available at the site to 'consult' with schools and colleagues about the teaching of writing and learning. A small number of sites retain the term "Fellows" for these same individuals, building off the term "Summer Fellows" used to describe individuals taking the Invitational Summer Institute. These sites, then, may reserve the term Teacher Consultant for those who are actively working in the inservice program at a site. Regardless of those local decisions, however, the NWP data collection instruments and reports will refer to all alumni of Invitational Summer Institutes as Teacher Consultants.
The use of terms such as Teacher Consultant rather than 'member' for educators who have come through the Summer Institute is meant to suggest that they, too, are part of the leadership of a local site. They may not have titled roles or appear on an organization chart, but they participate in leadership through continuity programs that involve them in shaping site culture and contributing to the knowledge at the site.
In this resource wiki, you will find examples of site leadership designs that leverage these roles for site leadership and growth. You can browse the different sections/pages of this resource in the Wiki Book Outline box to the right. Enjoy! (And add your own.)
