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The Story Workshop approach to writing has brought success to students in elementary, middle, and high school, college and graduate school, in areas ranging from disadvantaged and at-risk to suburban upper class.
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A study of results from the 2001 Illinois State Assessment Test (ISAT) for the 5th graders at one Chicago school indicate that 80% of the Story Workshop-trained students met or exceeded state standards in writing, while 29.6% of non-Story Workshop-trained students met state standards. Reading scores also showed a dramatic difference: when you develop writing ability, you also develop reading ability.
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In a Dallas Community College with one of the leading pre- and post-test writing systems in the country, students from Story Workshop-taught composition classes passed the rigorous post-test (two hours of argumentative writing) at a rate of 90%, compared to a 50-70% passing rate for students from non-Story Workshop-taught composition classes. Over 14 semesters of testing, these percentages did not vary more than a few points each time the test was given.
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Story Workshop students from the acclaimed Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago have used their writing and creative problem-solving skills to find successful careers not only in writing, journalism, editing, television, film, and radio, but also in law, banking, administration, education, insurance, and other professional fields. The department, one of the largest fiction writing programs in the country, has used the Story Workshop approach for over 35 years at all levels of the department's expository and creative writing classes.
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In May, 2001, the WBEZ (Chicago) series "Education Matters" aired a personal essay by a Story Workshop student teacher who had seen remarkable development in the writing abilities of 4th graders tracked as both well-prepared and not so well-prepared, all in the same Story Workshop class.
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See also quantified results of Story Workshop Composition classes in "My Own Voice: Students Say it Unlocks the Writing Process," by Zoe Keithley, in the Journal of Basic Writing, Vol. II, No. 2, 1992.
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In all of these examples, there was no special selection process for the students. The skills you build in a Story Workshop class develop the creative problem-solving and communication abilities that every student needs to complete writing assignments more easily and with stronger results. Story Workshop classes work for everybody.
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