Sites are funded by multiple sources that include state monies, host campus and surrounding school district support, and whenever possible, additional extramural support. The Summer Institute usually runs five weeks, all day, four days a week, with a three-day weekend for writing, reading, and preparation. Participants, whenever possible, receive modest stipends to cover tuition, fees, books, and related expenses. Teachers receive graduate credit for participating in the institute. Teachers are selected on the basis of their demonstrable success as teachers of writing and for their promise as equally successful teachers of other teachers.
Directors seek teachers who have a strong and open approach to ideas.
Participants are drawn from all grade levels, K-university, and from across the curriculum, as well as from English and language arts. Participants are drawn from both public and private schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas. VWP sites regularly seek interested school administrators and other policy makers as full-time summer participants. The local Virginia Writing Project Site Director has final authority in selection of Summer Institute participants. For the project staff, the spring meeting is an opportunity to give reading and writing assignments, explain details of the summer schedule, and describe the participant demonstrations of good teaching practice.