"The training of coaches is incredible and shows when they work with students. Coaches are patient with the temperament of teenagers
and encourage them even when students begin with very negative attitudes. I have watched coaches just be present with a student
until they are ready to work, and 90% of the time, students will come round and engage with the session." 

—English teacher, Berkeley High School, 2010-11

We use demonstrable metrics to assess WriterCoach Connection and refine the program’s approaches and techniques.

2010-11 Program Assessment Results
In spring 2011, students from nine Oakland, Berkeley, El Cerrito, and Albany secondary schools completed a survey that asked them to rate their experience with 11 aspects of the coaching process on a four-point scale. The scale ranged from “Not Helpful” to “Very Helpful.” Mean scores for each aspect on the survey were analyzed. The following are highlights taken from the combined response:

• A robust 94% of students reported that their coaches were helpful in guiding them to more effective writing.
• Students rated as the most helpful aspects of coaching "Giving me suggestions for organizing my ideas," "Overall helpfulness," "Showing me what's working in my writing," "Showing me how to express my ideas more clearly," and "Checking that I understand the assignment completely," all of which round to 3.0 or higher. The remaining elements all round to a mean helpfulness score of 3.0, solidly "helpful" in the following close order: "Giving me suggestions about word choice or style," "Encouraging me to think more deeply about my ideas," "Giving me suggestions about grammar, spelling or punctuation changes," "Making sure I understand the next steps for developing or revising my work," and "Helping to support my ideas with evidence."
• All teachers reported that the writer coaches were helpful or very helpful. Twelve of the 17 specific elements regarding student engagement, writing skills, and different writers' needs earned mean scores of 3.5 or above, "very helpful," with the remaining five elements earning mean scores of 3.4, "helpful" or above. 
• Once again, coaches indicated a high degree of satisfaction with WCC as a quality volunteer experience. Ninety-two percent agreed on the end-of-year coach survey with the statement "Overall, my experience as a writer coach is rewarding," with over 50% agreeing strongly.
  

In Oakland in spring 2011, WCC coaches assisted Media Academy 10th grade students in preparation for the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). Subsequently, 70% of those students passed the English Language Arts (ELA) section of the exam on the first attempt, and 34% of the students scored 380 (the threshold for proficiency) or above on the essay portion of the exam. The Media Academy principal describes 10th-grade CAHSEE ELA pass rates as unprecedented at his school since WCC coaches began serving Media Academy students and teachers. 

At Oakland's Mandela High School in 2010-11, 10th grade students coached by WriterCoach Connection also performed well on the ELA section of CAHSEE. Of the 85 Mandela students tested in February, 63 were served by WriterCoach Connection. Of these 63 WCC-coached sophomores, 38 (or 60.3%) passed the ELA test on their first try, and 26.5% achieved a score of "proficient" or above. These scores are slightly below the Oakland Unified School District averages -- 66% passing, with 36% proficient -- but 99% of Mandela students coached by WCC passed the essay exam, which counts as 20% of the total CAHSEE score, with a grade of 2.0 or higher. And an impressive number of Mandela students --- 5 in all -- were rated "advanced."

At El Cerrito High School (ECHS), WriterCoach Connection appeared to deliver a powerfully positive impact on students in the English Language Development (ELD) classes coached in 2010-11. In February 2011, ECHS ELD students achieved a 63% pass rate on the English Language Arts section of CAHSEE. By comparison, for the West Contra Costa Unified School District overall, the February 2011 CAHSEE ELA pass rate for English Learners was 37% (421 tested, 157 passed). 

Of the 35 10th-grade students at El Cerrito High School classified as English Learners, served by WriterCoach Connection volunteers, and tested in February 2011, 22 passed the English Language Arts section of the exit exam. The average essay score was 2.1 on a four-point scale, with 2.0 as a passing grade. 

By way of further comparison, the ELA English-Learner pass rate at ECHS in February 2010, before Community Alliance for Learning and the school launched WriterCoach Connection, was 35% (49 tested, 17 passed). In the year that WCC volunteers arrived on campus to work with ELD students on their writing, the students' CAHSEE ELA pass rate rose a startling 28 percentage points.

Academic achievement like this is attributable to many factors, including dedicated teachers, strong curriculum, and effective school leadership, but the  teachers and administrators at Media Academy, Mandela High School, and El Cerrito High School are adamant in their insistence that WriterCoach Connection is a major factor in their students' startling increases in writing achievement.

View the executive summary of the 2010-11 WCC Assessment Report, or the full report, by following the links below.