Capital District Writing Project

The Capital District Writing Project (CDWP) is a community of K-College educators working to enhance the teaching of writing in the Capital Region’s schools. Located within UAlbany’s School of Education, the CDWP brings together teachers from throughout the Capital Region to create a vibrant community of life-long learners. As a site of the National Writing Project, we envision a future where every person is an accomplished writer, engaged learner, and active participant in an interconnected, digital world.  

The CDWP offers a proven model for the professional development of teachers at all levels of education. We create opportunities for educators of all subject areas, community educators, and young people to experience writing as purposeful, joyful, and socially transformative. We provide sustained, experiential, and immersive professional learning, guided by systematic inquiry into practice, led by teachers, for teachers, in collaboration with university partners. Our model is grounded in an ethic of reciprocity in which we learn with and from each other and from the scholarship of teaching. In addition to our signature Invitational Summer Institute for teachers, we also offer young writers workshops and sponsor events in and for the community.

Numerous independent research studies show that students of teachers who participate in the National Writing Project yield significant gains in writing achievement.