To counter the too-prevalent pattern of high school graduates entering postsecondary education without the skills needed to keep up with college-level reading and writing, educators in California developed the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) for high school seniors. An independent evaluation by WestEd researchers found that the course had a positive impact on student achievement.

The course teaches strategies such as annotation, rereading, and noticing authors’ language and organization choices. Challenges remain in finding the best professional learning approaches to prepare teachers for implementing ERWC effectively.