Writing centers “support and enrich writing instruction by drawing on trained tutors as accessible experts who engage students in academic discourse, build confidence in writers, and help them navigate expectations of audience, purpose, and clarity in writing” (IWCA Position Statement on Secondary School Writing Centers, 2015). As academic learning spaces, writing centers provide support for student writers throughout the writing process for personal and/or academic writing tasks across all subject areas. Writing centers offer one-on-one consultations for student writers, engage peers in meaningful collaborative learning and leadership opportunities, and support literacy instruction throughout the school.

By adopting writing centers, secondary schools gain peer- and teacher-led resources that enhance classroom-based writing instruction, including the following research-based outcomes:

1. A focus on the writing process generated by collaborative inquiry between peers. Writing tutoring helps students transfer knowledge about writing across subject areas and writing tasks, which is particularly important in the wake of AI-generated texts and student accountability for their own learning and writing.
2. Writing support across the curriculum (WAC). Writing centers facilitate content literacy experiences and engage teachers and students in considering the role of writing to learn in all disciplines and contexts. 
3. 21st century skills and dispositions. Peer-to-peer learning engages students in collaboration, creation, communication, and critical thinking. In addition to writing, speaking, and listening skills, writing tutors develop empathy and emotional intelligence that carry with them into future career and academic settings. Student writers develop self-efficacy, risk-taking, and confidence as writers and thinkers.
4. Teacher leader development. SSWCs provide opportunities for teacher directors to professionalize their practice and become teacher leaders through local, regional, and national professional networks.

In secondary schools, writing centers sometimes run as an extra-curricular offering, where trained student tutors conference with their peers after school or during flex periods during the school day. Increasingly, secondary schools are finding ways to integrate writing centers as a co-curricular support service, offering credit-bearing tutor-training classes and integrating tutoring availability throughout the school day. In either model, secondary school writing centers (SSWCs) are typically directed by one or more teachers and are staffed by trained student tutors; they thrive when they have the support of school administrators, teachers, and students.

Below is a list of recommended resources to learn more about SSWCs. In addition to reading these online and print publications, you may consider joining the SSWC-Listserv, becoming a member of The Secondary School Writing Centers Association, or attending a writing center conference to connect with others who are invested in this work.