Though it goes by many names (Writing in the Disciplines [WID], Writing in the Content Areas [WIC], Writing Across the Curriculum [WAC], etc.), it has one primary goal: to encourage writing in the lives of students throughout their studies. High School Writing Center scholar Pam Childers said that one sure way to guarantee non-success is to take away the cross-curricular aspect of the writing center. "If it is not a WAC-based writing center with a philosophy that supports the goals of the institution ... it is doomed to fail," she said.

High School Writing Centers are often housed within a school's English department, but that does not have to be the case. Writing is becoming more and more present in both the academic and personal lives of students and, as Childers wrote along with Dawn Fels and Jeanette Jordan in a 2004 Praxis article, "it is equally important for teachers and students from all disciplines to have access to the writing center."

Teachers should be involved with the writing center if only by sending their students there for assistance with writing assignments, but can be much more involved. For example, in that 2004 Praxis article, Jeanette Jordan related that teachers at her school (Glenbrook North High School, Northbrook, IL) 

 work at the writing center as part of their duty assignments.