Introduction

Much has changed in the more than 20 years since writing across the curriculum (WAC) was first introduced in schools across the country. In some districts, to be sure, WAC came and went with a former administrator or a small group of committed teachers. As Barr and Healy (1988) note, many early WAC programs fizzled out before they even got started. One-time workshops were not enough to significantly influence teaching practices or produce noticeable changes in student test scores, and many schools quickly returned to old ways or moved on to different approaches.

In other districts, however, WAC has taken strong hold, and has been shaping instruction and professional development across all grades and subject areas for more than two decades. Anticipating that they could improve both writing and learning, many middle and high school educators were quick to design WAC-based programs to fit the needs of their students and schools. Over time, changes in technology, student populations, and educational policy have led to continued adaptation and expansion of these efforts. WAC leaders at the secondary level have launched writing centers, developed cross-grade tutoring programs, and created cross-disciplinary service learning projects, among other things, often working in collaboration with other programs and schools.

Though the most successful WAC-based programs appear to have emerged from the grassroots efforts of interested teachers, much growth in WAC programs in recent years can also be traced to the standards movement. As Russell (2002) notes, "The most widespread and coordinated efforts have come out of assessment initiatives, which drove change in every aspect of WAC in the 1990s" (p. 317). In response to federal-, state-, and district-level improvement mandates, many schools found new support for involving "subject area teachers in writing development in-service," as well as for writing WAC officially into larger reform plans (Russell, 2002, p. 318).