The National Study of Writing Instruction - University at Albany

Administrator Interview Schedule
Value & Emphasis
What do you see as the broad goals (benefits or uses) of writing in all the
academic subjects?
1. How would you describe the importance of writing to students’ success in school and in their
future lives?
2. How much emphasis does your school or district give to writing? How is this emphasis
demonstrated? How do you think this emphasis influences classroom instruction and student
learning?
3. What do you see as the most important aspects of writing in Language Arts? Math? Science?
Social Studies?
Initiatives, Curriculum & Collaboration
What support are you offering in the way of curriculum, materials and professional
development to your teachers regarding writing?
Do you have any special projects or goals involving writing this year or in the near
future?
4. What school-wide or department-wide initiatives have been undertaken recently involving
writing?
How have such programs/policies/procedures been implemented? How well do you think they
have they have succeeded? Why?
5. What curricular guidelines and materials regarding writing does your school or district provide?
How are these chosen or developed?
6. What opportunities have teachers and administrators had to learn more about writing through
conferences, workshops, courses, or other contacts? When? How and to what extent have
ideas from these sources been used in the classroom?
7. How and to what extent do teachers collaborate to plan and evaluate student writing?
Instructional Stance
How do you know when things are going well regarding writing in the district?
8. How would you describe high-quality writing? (in Language Arts, math, science, social studies)?
How do teachers of the different subjects develop a sense of what this is and how to support it?
9. What do you and your teachers look at to track how well things are going regarding writing?
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