Heidi Estrem is professor of English and director of the first-year writing program at Boise State University. Her research interests in first-year writing pedagogy, writing program administration, assessment, and instructor development and support have led to publications in Writing Program Administration, Rhetoric Review, Composition Studies, and several edited collections. Her recent edited collection Retention and Persistence in Writing Programs (co-edited with Todd Ruecker, Dawn Shepherd, and Beth Brunk-Chavez) offers a variety of research-based perspectives on programs and initiatives designed to better support students in their initial college writing courses.

In the past five years, she and her colleagues from across Idaho have collaborated to implement co-requisite first-year writing courses and to reconsider writing placement processes at every institution in the state. Now, only one institution has a non-credit-bearing writing course. Most campuses have implemented or are implementing multiple-measures-based approaches to writing placement through customizing The Write Class for their campus. These two changes have resulted in increased student confidence and persistence as more students have immediate success in a critical gateway course.