The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation's Indiana Teaching Fellowship

What is the Indiana Teaching Fellowship?

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is launching a major new fellowship to address fundamental challenges to improving the teacher workforce, including raising the prestige of the profession, addressing key shortages in the field, and demonstrating what effective teacher preparation and retention should look like - particularly in high-need schools. The Foundation is launching its first state-based model of this national fellowship in Indiana, with plans to expand the model to other states.

The Indiana Teaching Fellowship will provide a $30,000 stipend to exceptionally able candidates to complete a year-long master's program at a selected college or university. Fellows must commit to teach math or science for three years in high-need secondary urban or rural schools in the state. The Fellowships seek to attract talented college graduates and mid-career professionals who might not otherwise consider teaching. Fellows will be given intensive mentoring and assessment focused on the first two years of teaching.

The Fellowship program has four primary goals that will be the same for Indiana and all other states that roll out their own Woodrow Wilson programs in the future. These are:

* Transform teacher education - not just for Fellows but for the universities that prepare them, other teacher candidates in the same programs, and the high-need schools where they are placed as teachers;

* Get strong teachers into high-need schools. Indiana has chosen to focus on attracting math and science teachers, though other states may choose different subject areas;

* Attract the very best candidates to teaching through a fellowship with a well-known name and high visibility, similar to a National Merit Scholarship; and

* Cut teacher attrition and retain top teachers through intensive clinical preparation and ongoing in-school mentoring, provided by veteran teachers and supported by able principals.

Who is eligible for the Indiana Teaching Fellowship?

Undergraduates and career changers from across the nation will be eligible. Candidates must have undergraduate majors in math or science, have graduated in the top 10 percent of their class, and demonstrate commitment to the program's goals via an essay, interview, and faculty recommendation.

How many teachers will the fellowship prepare?

Initially the Indiana fellowship program will prepare 80 new math and science teachers for the state each year - roughly one-quarter of the total number of Indiana secondary teachers now being prepared in those fields - with aspirations to scale up to 400 per year, creating a critical mass of Fellows statewide in the crucial math and science fields.

Which Indiana institutions are participating and what will they do?

The Woodrow Wilson Foundation selected four Indiana institutions to participate based on the existing high quality of their teacher-preparation programs and their willingness to make historic changes and test out new models. The institutions are Purdue University, Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and the University of Indianapolis.

Participating universities will receive 20 Fellows each year. In addition, the fellowship program offers each university up to $500,000 in matching funds and 60 days of paid consulting to enhance its teacher preparation programs, and will engage Fellows directly in host schools from the start of their master's work. High-need schools will hire these well-trained Fellows in small cohorts, receiving support and some university privileges for teachers who mentor Fellows, as well as opportunities to engage other teachers in the same mentoring that Fellows receive. Teacher candidates who are not Fellows but who train in the same institutions will also benefit, since they will be enrolled in the same teacher preparation programs and receive similar induction opportunities.

Already, the universities have outlined new directions for their teacher education programs that will include:

* Reworking current curriculum to center upon an outcomes-based approach to teacher education;

* Pioneering clinically based approaches to teacher preparation that tie theory to practice, put master's students in the classroom from the first day of their preparation; include residencies for teachers on campus and for professors in schools; and offer in-school mentoring once Fellows begin to teach;

* Building new teacher-preparation collaborations with the college of arts and sciences; and

* Lodging responsibility for the teaching fellowships directly in the provost's office, to ensure institution-wide involvement.

Why was Indiana chosen as the first state to launch the state teaching fellowships?

The need for new teachers is great, and, with a million schoolchildren and 4,000 new teachers each year, Indiana is an ideal size for Woodrow Wilson's first state-based model, since the four-university pilot can be scaled up quickly to achieve a critical mass for the state. Also, Indiana's philanthropic and private sectors have demonstrated strong support for this effort, as have the governor and state legislature.

What is the timeline for the Indiana Fellowship program?

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation will begin accepting applications in spring 2009. Fellows will be named in late spring and will enroll in their graduate programs in fall 2009.

How will the Indiana Teaching Fellowships be funded?

The Indianapolis, Indiana-based Lilly Endowment has pledged $10.1 million to support the pilot state model in Indiana. The Governor, superintendent of education, and commissioner of higher education are backing the program, offering the possibility that they can help raise private, corporate, and foundation support.

CONTACT: Beverly Sanford - Director of Communications, sanford@woodrow.org, 1-609-452-7007 x181