AANAPISI Grant Project (2011-2016)

In October 2011, the AANAPISI Grant Project began and ran until September 2016. SJSU received the grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a project to improve writing skills and retention and graduation rates.

Goals & Priorities

Improve Writing Skills

Through a model of systematic and active engagement in writing, San José State University seeks to improve the writing skills of Asian American, Generation 1.5, and other Under-Represented Minority (URM) students.

Generation 1.5

Generation 1.5 students, U.S. educated English learners, are high needs students who have characteristics of both first and second generation immigrants.

Challenges

The challenges presented by this complicated skill set in Generation 1.5 students can be seen most clearly in English writing, a critical competency for academic success at SJSU which encompasses increasing retention and graduation rates.

Project Goals

The grant goals aimed to foster a campus-wide culture of writing excellence by achieving four goals.

Goal #1

Assessing and reorganize the existing writing support services at SJSU.

Goal #2

Enabling more data-based decision-making about student retention and graduation at SJSU.

Goal #3

Developing, implementing, and integrating proactive writing strategies.

Goal #4

Change the SJSU writing culture from a policy-driven approach to an action-oriented approach.

Priority #1

Increasing postsecondary success through projects that are designed to increase the number and proportion of high-need students who persist in and complete college or other postsecondary education training.

Priority #2

Enabling more data-based decision-making through projects that are designed to collect (or obtain), analyze, and use high-quality and timely data, including data on program participant outcomes in improving postsecondary student outcomes relating to enrollment, persistence, and completion and leading to career success.

Grant Responsibility

This project was under the direct supervision of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. At the grant conclusion, it was been integrated into SJSU's campus-wide efforts to improve the retention and graduation rates of URM students.

Faculty Writing Workshop

Dr. Linda C. Mitchell, Professor in the Department of English, and Michelle Hager, Director of the SJSU Writing Center and Lecturer in the Department of English, developed a writing workshop to be presented to select members of the SJSU faculty. The goal of the AANAPISI Faculty Writing Workshop is to improve the quality of writing instruction across the campus.

Faculty Writing Workshop: One Day

The one-day writing workshop was designed to give professors a collection of 20-minute grab-and-go activities for the classroom.

Faculty Writing Workshop: Two Day

The two-day workshop was a full day of instruction about the teaching of writing. Faculty members created practical lesson plans that can be used in the classroom.

Post Workshop Projects

Learn more about our post-workshop projects, including handbooks and materials, previous proposals, and final project reports.