In Stage 1, the 24 students in Carissa Turner’s six-week intensive summer course framed an issue on the topic of the State High building project, and six groups in the class researched a separate approach to the issue:

How should the balance between the school board and the public be maintained

in the State College Area School District decision-making process?

1. Maintain the current school board decision-making process

2. Pursue quality research and distribute its results to the public

3. Implement legal action to keep the school board in check

4. Seek independent oversight of the decision-making process

5. Involve the public in decision-making through polls, referenda, and surveys

6. Incorporate parent/teacher/student organizations in the decision-making process

Each group produced a report, and Stage 2 students in the fall semester will build on that research to begin shaping the discussion booklet.

Turner provided feedback from her students:

• Some students didn’t like having three assignments (proposal, progress report, and final informational report) on the same topic; some felt that it was a distraction to have two non-school-topic assignments (technical definition and job application packet) in between the proposal and the progress report (said it was jarring to switch gears back and forth and that they didn’t really work on commissioned assignment research during those 2 and a half weeks)
• Some students liked their level of involvement in the issue-framing; some felt that it would have been easier to have not only their topic but their approach/angle chosen for them; some wished that they could have chosen the topic for themselves
• Some students suggested that, in the future, the project should start in the fall semester, since it takes a while to gather research (and many felt it was unfair that they should have to do the bulk of the research for the project, while the future classes will focus more on document design, etc.)
• Many students expressed a desire to use more of their expertise from their own fields in the project: they wished that the topic could have had more of a technical angle (I would conclude that there’s a tension between choosing topics that are valid for at least a year and a half and choosing topics related to technical decision-making, since technical decisions often have to be made within a brief time period)
• Students were generally pleased with how their group members and classmates pulled together to produce quality research and quality documents
• Students admitted that their interest in the topic waxed and waned along with their perception of public interest: the students were excited after attending the Act 34 Hearing, but after conducting polls in which many residents said that they didn’t care about the issue one way or another, some students were discouraged

In the fall semester, Jessica Raley will take the product of Stage 1 and move into Stage 2 with three sections of the technical writing course she has been assigned to teach, thereby tripling the number of students who become engaged in this civic issue. Spring 2007, Antonio Ceraso will take the product of Stage 2 and move into 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.