About OhioWINS
What is OhioWINS?
The Ohio Writing Institute Network for Success (OhioWINS) is an initiative
created by the Ohio Board of Regents and funded by the State of Ohio. OhioWINS
brings college English department faculty together with K-12 teachers and high
school students to lead students to the mastery of Ohio's English Language Arts
Standards. The purpose of the initiative is to make success in higher education
an achievable goal by improving student skills. Formerly called the Early
English Composition Assessment Program (EECAP), OhioWINS is committed to
preparing students for the challenges they face in higher education while
reducing the need for remedial English coursework in college, coursework that
is expensive and time consuming.
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Why was OhioWINS created?
OhioWINS was created to respond to Ohio's need to better prepare students to be
proficient writers. According to a study done by the Ohio Board of Regents,
A high proportion of first-year students are not completely ready
for college: 39% of these students enrolled in a remedial course in their first
year in college.
At some Ohio colleges, especially two-year campuses, over 40% of writing courses
are developmental.
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What is the OhioWINS strategy?
The strategy is simple:
- Provide sustained, high-quality professional development programs in writing
instruction to Ohio's K-12 teachers
- Provide access to peer-reviewed, standards-aligned resources that help teachers
develop rigorous, engaging lesson plans
- Share best practices in the field
- Show results in the classroom
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What tools does OhioWINS use to implement its strategy?
The approach is to develop programs and tools that:
- Align professional development to Ohio's Academic Content Standards
- Coordinate state-wide professional development to ensure quality
- Identify peer- reviewed, standards-aligned instructional resources
- Offer easy access to outstanding professional and assessment resources
- Create partnerships between K-12 and higher education
- Develop a professional culture to help retain teachers
- Help new teachers master content knowledge
- Support teachers in hard-to-staff schools
- Provide opportunities for teacher collaboration
- Encourage continued teacher professionalism
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What are the OhioWINS programs?
The OhioWINS programs consist of summer institutes. The content of Summer
Institutes is aligned with the English Language Arts Content Standards. By
helping teachers fully understand the content standards, teacher efficacy is
maximized, resulting in improved student writing achievement.
Currently, summer institutes are located at ten sites:
- Cuyahoga Community College
- Kent State University
- Miami University
- The Ohio State University
- Ohio University
- Shawnee State University
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- University of Akron
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Toledo
- Wright State University
- Youngstown State University
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This highly cooperative network of professional development writing institutes
partners with K-12 districts to accomplish some of Ohio's most pressing English
language arts education goals.
Institute directors meet quarterly to plan
professional development that ensures a common learning experience for teachers
throughout Ohio.
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Who can I contact about OhioWINS?
Phil Luther, OhioWINS Project Director
Professor of English at Raymond Walters College of the University of Cincinnati
(513) 745-5749
philip.luther@uc.edu
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OhioWINS PowerPoint
The OhioWINS PowerPoint includes the background of OhioWINS and information about summer writing institutes and the OhioWINS website.
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