In Stage 2, the 72 students in Jessica Raley’s three fall semester courses used the summer class’s research and drafted issue books that addressed, “How should the balance between the school board and the public be maintained in the State College Area School District decision-making process?” 

Each of Raley’s three classes produced an issue-book report: 

English 202C, Section 014: Community and School Board Relations

English 202C, Section 015: Evaluating the Approaches to the Decision-Making Process in the State College Area School District

English 202C, Section 018: State College School Board Decisions and You

Raley provided representative comments from her students:

• "The most important idea I took away from working on this project is the concept of deliberation.  I liked how we deliberated in class about how we would work on the issue book...By deliberating, we were able to get good ideas from many people and then discuss them so that we could come up with the best solution."
• "I learned to use individuals' strengths to the advantage of the group...I also learned to sincerely listen to others' ideas."
• "Not once did we take a vote that decided something, instead everything was decided by talking about it until we came up with the best possible decision.  Those who assigned us this task were very tricky; I finally understand their multiple motives behind us doing [deliberation]."
• "I learned that it is easier to come up with a solution when everyone involved is willing to give their opinions, but also openly listen to and try to understand others' opinions.  Otherwise, discussions usually turn into debates, where hardly anything is ever solved."
• "One thing I gained exposure to from this project is how to tailor a document to other audiences.  In the past...I always had to write my paper to the instructor.  This is the first document...where I wrote something with all audiences in mind."
• "I will try to take a more active role in the decision making process of the world around me.  I want to be more active in controlling aspects in my life that before I thought I had no control of."

Overall, the students thought the project was valuable, even though each class did express some frustration with the challenges of working as a team of 24.  For Raley, the biggest challenge was keeping everyone motivated to work on the same project for about 8 weeks.

Spring 2007, Antonio Ceraso will take the three documents produced in Stage 2 by Raley’s students and will enact Stage 3 with two sections of the technical writing course he has been assigned to teach. Ceraso's students will complete the commissioned project.

By the end of the process, the assignment will have engaged up to 144 writing students, plus another half dozen or so peer tutors of writing, in the local issue of communication between the school board and the public.