Across sites, leadership teams and advanced institute groups meet to plan for the sustainability of their sites. As you plan your agendas, here are some questions and related resources that your leadership team might find useful. These questions could be used to structure a leadership team meeting that charts the future of your writing project.
Follow this link to suggested readings keyed to the items on this page.
The Host University
What activities is our site already engaged in that support the university’s mission and faculty?
How can we make our site more important to the university? (e.g. faculty writing retreats, support for the college writing program, writing in the disciplines)
What opportunities exist for our site to develop courses that generate tuition for the university and/or our site? (e.g. open programs, advanced programs, teacher inquiry groups). Who on campus knows how to handle tuition so that it benefits both the project and the university?
Are there grants or projects on our campus that we can join? Can we build a relationship with the campus foundation or grant development office? (e.g. STEM grants, teacher quality grants, school improvement grants, corporate gifts)
Schools and Districts
Where is the money and energy in our service area for professional development? What are we doing to respond to the following hot topics:
Common Core Standards
College and career readiness
English Language Learners (ELL)
Technology and digital literacies
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)
Are there new potential partners we could contract with, such as community colleges, charter schools, private schools, or previously unserved schools in our service area?
What do we know about grants that are available to schools and districts that our site could contribute to and partner with ? (e.g. Title I, Title II, school improvement, technology, ELL, migrant education)
Youth and Community
Can we expand or rethink our young writers programs so that they increase income for the project? (e.g. add professional development for teachers, develop youth writing conferences and contests, ELL programming, or programs for college-bound high school students)
How has our writing project made its work visible and valuable to the community? (e.g. Community Reads, Student Contests, Family Write Nights, Exciting Writing Week, community/business advisory board members, community partnerships; programs for business and community groups)
State and Regional
How can our site work with other sites in the state or region to take advantage of statewide or regional priorities? (e.g. Common Core, Reading Apprenticeship, Race to the Top Funding)
Private Foundations
What conversations have we had or might we have with our university foundation or development office about accessing local private foundation and business support ?
