The Impact

The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship focuses specifically on individuals with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math—the STEM disciplines—because high-need urban and rural public high schools have the most difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers in these fields. While industry and the academy compete for the attention of exceptionally well-qualified individuals in these disciplines, such individuals can have a powerful impact on the future of the students who need their expertise the most.

By 2012, the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship will prepare 600 highly skilled math, science, and technology teachers for high-need public schools in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. These teachers will significantly decrease the shortage of STEM teachers in their states.

What’s so special about the kind of preparation this program offers?

For more than six decades, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation has been preparing outstanding individuals to teach, first at the college level, now in high school classrooms. Designation as a “Woodrow Wilson Fellow” signifies excellence, rigor and selectivity. Through this new program, Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows will help elevate the teaching profession and bring prestige back to this crucial profession.

Some traditional teacher preparation programs consist of sitting in university classrooms learning about teaching, with only brief exposure to a practicum—“student teaching”—at the end of the program. The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship is designed to provide intensive classroom experience from the beginning, along with content-rich courses that specifically prepare candidates to teach in their fields of expertise. By offering this preparation in the context of a master’s degree program, the Fellowship also enables new teachers to begin their classroom careers with an important and rewarding credential already in hand.