Teacher ed fellowships

The Chronicle of Higher Education officially broke the news today of a substantial effort to bring qualified people into teaching. Under the headline “2 Fellowship Programs to Award Millions to Prospective Teachers” there is a story about a state- and a national-level program.

Let’s hope that the people who go through these programs receive preparation in how to recognize and implement effective teaching methods. It’d be shame to have them trained (arf! arf!) in the usual namby-pamby methods that have so dominated education in the 40 years I’ve been watching it.

December 19, 2007
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has just announced the creation of two programs that will subsidize the advanced education of prospective teachers to help better prepare them for elementary- and secondary-school classrooms.

One program will be state-based, with the pilot effort in Indiana. Fellows there will receive a $30,000 stipend to complete a yearlong master’s program, and will be required to teach mathematics and science for three years in urban or rural schools, where good teachers are in short supply.

The undertaking will involve four higher-education institutions: Ball State University, Purdue University, the University of Indianapolis, and Indiana and Purdue Universities’ joint campus in Indianapolis. All have agreed to overhaul their teacher-education programs with a more clinical approach that entails working closely with schools to provide mentors for their graduates and monitor their progress.

…snip…

The second fellowship program is national in scope. To be financed with $5-million from the Annenberg Foundation and $1-million from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, it will provide outstanding recent college graduates and people changing their careers with $30,000 stipends and a year of graduate education at one of four participating institutions: Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington.

I’m not sure if this link will work. Here’s a link to the press info from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Coverage by the New York Times.