Brief History

The Central Texas Writing Project was founded in March 1998, and is one of the oldest grant-funded programs at Texas State University. That summer Director Liz C. Stephens gathered 14 K-college teachers, who met for four weeks from 8:30-3:30 at the LBJ Student Center. It was the first of more than 30 Invitational Summer Institutes and dozens of open and advanced institutes.

As with all National Writing Project sites, the CTWP follows the teachers-teaching-teachers model created at the University of California-Berkeley by the NWP founder Jim Gray in 1974. Gray, a teacher educator and former high school English teacher, started the Bay Area Writing Project and coordinated the first Invitational Summer Institute. His intention was to create a different form of professional development for teachers, one that put teachers at the center. The program celebrated the knowledge, leadership, and best practices of effective teachers and created a community of teacher leaders.

Today there are nearly 180 NWP sites across the country. Educators who complete the Invitational Summer Institute at these sites become Teachers Consultants and engage in numerous professional development roles. The CTWP has a network of 450+ Teacher Consultants.