Dive Brief:

• Brawley Union High School Principal Jesse Sanchez was so alarmed by his students' lack of writing ability that he started a program demanding kids write in every class, every day, including physical education, according to EdSource.

• Ed Source reports that scores at the Brawley, CA, school then started to rise — up 30.6% among students who took the Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced, and up 17% in math.

• Students' success was also tied to teacher training in areas such as learning how to look for evidence, proper citations, and a well-developed argument while grading writing assignments.

Dive Insight:

Note-taking, the age-old practice of scribbling words on paper, can help students retain information. But writing may do more than just creates notes. The physical act itself may improve student learning and help better retain subject matter, as researchers Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer found in their 2014 study. Students writing down what educators taught were also teaching themselves, synthesizing information, and helping to embed material more deeply.

Just dropping pens and paper into a classroom is not enough, though. Districts must develop a literacy action plan to launch a successful writing program that works for teachers and students alike. That’s what Northwestern High School in Maryland did when they students asked to read and write in classes from English to Chemistry. Brockton High School in Massachusetts also used a writing program in every class, and New York City wants to embed a reading coach in all schools, in part to bring more writing to students’ days in a bid to boost literacy.

The ability to communicate clearly is crucial. Asking students to write in every class — from physics to P.E., may improve literacy scores and a child’s chances of having their needs, ideas and voices heard