Council of Writing Program Administrators

The WPA consultant-evaluator service helps colleges and universities develop and assess their writing programs. Operating on a method similar to regional accreditation agencies, WPA evaluations have several stages. WPA requests a written program self-study, sends a team of two trained consultant-evaluators to campus for interviews and on-site evaluation, and then compiles a final report. A six-month follow-up report from the campus completes the process.

WPA consultant-evaluators are leaders in the field of composition. They come from four-year colleges, community colleges, and universities. All are experienced writing program administrators with a national perspective on composition teaching and program administering. As evaluators, their primary goal is to determine a program's unique strengths and weaknesses, not to transform all writing programs into clones of their own. They recognize that every program must retain its individual character, serve a particular community, and solve special problems.

Institutions pay $3000 to cover honoraria for consultant-evaluators, a $250 administrative fee, and transportation and other related, appropriate expenses.

Applications for the service should be initiated 3 months before consultant-evaluators visit a campus. WPAs, department chairs, or college administrators may apply to:

Dr. Deborah H. Holdstein
Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Consultant-Evaluator Service/CWPA
Columbia College Chicago
33 E. Congress, Chicago 60605
Phone: 312.344.8219
dholdstein@colum.edu

(Title the post “C-E Visit.”)

To download a copy of Laura Brady's essay "A Case for Writing Program Evaluation" (WPA 28.1-2 [Fall 2004]), see attachment below.

To download a one-page flyer describing the C-E Service, see attachment below.

To download a copy of the "Guidelines for Self-Study to Precede WPA Visit" see attachment below.

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