Contact: Sammy McDavid
MSU Writing-Thinking Institute director Sherry Swain (second from left) receives the state honor from Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. Also pictured are institute staff leaders Linda Irby (at left) and Kim Patterson.
The Writing-Thinking Institute and its staff at Mississippi State are being honored by the state's chief executive.
Ronnie Musgrove recently presented a 2003 Governor's Achievement Award to the university program that serves as Mississippi's link to the National Writing Project, the only federally funded effort to improve the teaching of writing in American schools.
A unit of the College of Education's Center for Educational Partnerships, the Writing-Thinking Institute is a collaborative statewide network of seven NWP sites. Staffed by master teachers specially trained to mentor and lead other teachers, the program specializes in student-centered, integrated, process-oriented instructional strategies in all K-12 subject areas.
Led by director Sherry Swain, the MSU institute contracts with individual schools, school districts and organizations to provide both professional development and continuing mentoring. During the last fiscal year ending June 30, the organization conducted nearly 300 multiple-session programs and served some 4,000 teachers.
The institute earlier received strong praise from NWP executive director Richard Sterling, who called it "an exemplar of the best work" in the national project. "Through their statewide network of teacher consultants," he added, "this project plays a vital role in the improvement of educational achievement in reading and writing for the children of Mississippi."
NWP offices are housed on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Mississippi NWP sites are located at all but two of the eight public universities, Jackson State and Mississippi University for Women. Efforts to reestablish the JSU site currently are under way.
For more information, telephone (662) 325-7777 or visit http://www.educ.msstate.edu/mwti.