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To Draw Top Teachers to Troubled Schools, Foundation Will Offer $30,000 Stipends
By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007; A09
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation launched a $17 million effort yesterday to improve teacher education and steer highly qualified teachers to high-poverty and struggling schools.
The Princeton, N.J.-based foundation announced plans to award hundreds of future teachers a $30,000 stipend, starting in 2009, to attend graduate school. In return, the fellows will agree to teach for three years at high-needs schools, including some in Virginia. Partnering universities will focus on math, science and other content areas, and provide mentoring and support for teachers when they enter the classroom.
Arthur E. Levine, foundation president and former president of Teachers College at Columbia University, has been critical of the nation's teacher preparation programs, arguing that many have watered-down curricula and low standards. He said he's hopeful the fellowship program will help strengthen teacher training, attract strong candidates to the profession and keep them in the classrooms once they start.
"What we're really trying to do is to dignify the teaching profession and give it status," Levine said.
The first fellowships will be awarded in spring 2009, and recipients will begin working as teachers the following year. The effort will target recent graduates who have bachelor's degrees in arts and sciences as well as people pursuing teaching as a second career.
The foundation's efforts come amid a nationwide push by educators, advocacy groups and the business community to better prepare teachers, especially in math and science. The National Math and Science Initiative is giving grants to 10 colleges and universities to replicate a University of Texas at Austin program that encourages math and science majors to become teachers.
The foundation has teamed with top teaching colleges at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Washington and Stanford University for one initiative that will accept 100 fellows over three years. It also has coordinated with four universities in Indiana for at least 80 fellows a year in an initiative that foundation officials will seek to expand to other states. Several philanthropic organizations, including the Lilly Endowment, the Annenberg Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. of New York, provided funding.
The performance of high school students taught by the fellows will be tracked to gauge whether the program makes a difference.
Jamie Fasteau, director of policy development for the Alliance for Excellent Education, said the effort could provide much-needed guidance on the most effective ways to improve high schools.
"We're always looking for the best programs for high school teachers on the ground so we can filter those up to the federal level," Fasteau said.
The fellows will work closely with school districts to get classroom training during their graduate course work. At the University of Virginia, for instance, the fellows will work with Charlottesville schools.
Robert C. Pianta, dean of the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, said the fellowship offers a strong incentive to people considering a teaching career.
"It clearly calls attention to teaching as a profession in a way that accords it some prestige," Pianta said. "What this gives us is another way to attract the best and brightest."
