Mobilizing for 20,000 Excellent New STEM Teachers

Summary

In 2011, the Carnegie Corporation, along with a wide range of partners, committed to identifying and funding programs that focus on recruiting and train 20,000 new STEM teachers within three years, while supporting existing STEM educators. To do this, Carnegie and its partners will create a funding pool valued at a minimum of $20 million and will invite relevant programs to apply.

Approach

APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
Carnegie Corporation and a wide range of partners will mobilize and fund programs that recruit, train, and support excellent STEM teachers. To do this, they will create a funding pool with a value of at least $20 million and will invite relevant programs to apply. Using criteria established in conjunction with the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute, the group will identify those that will most effectively recruit, train, and support teachers and offer opportunities for each funder to fund the work accordingly. Carnegie’s partners (collectively known as the 100Kin10 movement) will individually do the following to further the work:
American Museum of Natural History will prepare 130 certified science teachers for high-need schools by 2015; each teacher will commit to teach in those schools for at least four years. The Museum will also implement two-year new teacher induction programs, will develop and increase its professional development opportunities for 2,000 educators per year, and will develop models for effective partnerships between districts, teacher preparation programs, and cultural institutions to retain exemplary science teachers in middle school.
Ashoka’s Changemakers will launch an open-source competition that taps the talent in non-profits and the private sector to fill the gap in STEM teaching.
Baltimore City Public Schools will implement a career ladder and incentive system for teachers to develop and demonstrate deeper practice in STEM.
The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT will partner with Google to build out a blueprint for a high-profile recognition program for the top 5% of STEM teachers nationwide.
Citizen Schools will bring 10,000 additional STEM professionals into classrooms to teach part-time over the next ten years to increase STEM capacity and help expose students to a range of STEM careers.
Creative Commons will help STEM stakeholders maximize access and return on investment for online STEM learning materials through education about Creative Commons licensed material and leverage to-be-developed open licensing, course design, and open policy best practices and educational resources for reuse and adaptation by STEM funders and producers.
DSST Public Schools will document and share best practices around STEM teacher support and professional development through regular onsite observation days, video content on the DSST website, and public speaking opportunities.
EnCorps will bring 500 new EnCorps STEM Educators (full-time teachers, tutors, guest teachers, and substitutes) into public schools by 2014, with a focus on women as well as advocate for an expedited STEM certification process for eligible career changers in California and, nationally, for the elimination of Social Security ‘double jeopardy’ regulations that penalize career changers who take a full-time teaching job in the public sector.
Google will partner with The Broad Institute to build out a blueprint for a high-profile recognition program for the top 5% of STEM teachers nationwide. Google will also share talent management practices to help find, grow, and retain outstanding STEM teachers by partnering with districts and organizations for comprehensive reform and hosting talent academies with administrators and decision-makers. Also they will work with pre-service faculty at the Google Faculty Institute, starting with a pilot program in California, on how to integrate innovative educational technology across curriculum and scale the practice by funding research on this topic.
IDEA Public Schools will design new strategies for training novice STEM teachers and will develop a new career-progression model that will strengthen and retain the best STEM teachers.
KIPP Houston will lead STEM growth efforts in Texas and will equip other schools, districts, and charters with the tools for how to do so.
Los Angeles Unified School District will launch a district-wide initiative that identifies key metrics around STEM teacher hiring, retention, training, development, and compensation to deploy a targeted talent recruitment and retention plan that addresses STEM shortage areas over the next two hiring cycles.
National Math and Science Initiative will prepare 4,000 new STEM teachers from 31 UTeach sites by 2015.
National Science Foundation will provide guidance to the 100Kin10 community about funding opportunities for teacher preparation.
New Teacher Center will provide online and offline support and mentorship to 15,000 new STEM teachers over the next two years with the goal of accelerating teacher development and student learning and interest in STEM fields.
New York Hall of Science will build a center for design-based STEM learning that will serve over 10,000 teachers annually and will develop a model program that illustrates how science centers can support teachers in integrating design-based approaches to teaching STEM at the school level.
NewSchools Venture Fund will invest a total of $500,000 in one or more entrepreneurial STEM teacher preparation programs. We will publicize STEM resources developed by members of our community to advance the field’s ability to consistently prepare quality STEM teachers.
Opportunity Equation will accelerate progress toward 100Kin10 through the promotion and dissemination of innovations in quality STEM teacher preparation, retention, and support; creation and support of tools, products, and venues to connect partners; and mobilization of the movement.
Relay School of Education will prepare 400 math and science teachers by 2015 and will create innovative math and science content and tools aligned to the Common Core State Standards as well as work on regulatory changes to permit non-STEM majors to enter the field and will collaborate with others to create competency assessments to ensure that STEM teachers have content expertise.
S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation will commit $3 million over three years toward the preparation, training, and support of effective STEM teachers in California.
Teach for America (TFA) will recruit 11,000 STEM corps members by 2015 and will fast track high-potential TFA applicants with a STEM background who do not meet TFA selection criteria to districts, organizations hiring STEM teachers. TFA also will enhance the effectiveness of TFA STEM teachers so that they perform on average at the level of 75th percentile teachers nationwide.
The New Teacher Project will only certify STEM teachers who have a demonstrated impact on raising student achievement by implementing an Assessment of Classroom Effectiveness screen for all participants and will share data collected on the impact of certification screens on student outcomes and hiring. Additionally they will train 2,100 excellent STEM teachers by 2015.
University of Chicago Urban Education Institute will appoint and staff a National Commission to recommend STEM programs for the 100Kin10 initiative, will undertake rigorous review of programs, and will provide feedback on implementation to drive improvement and create a rigorous model to train and support 500 new K-12 STEM teachers for Chicago Public Schools over five years.
University of Washington College of Education will develop video-based learning tools designed to foster the early career success of STEM teachers and will measure and assess their efficacy through performance assessments, retention rates of new teachers, and impact on pupil learning. University of Washington also will prepare 300 new STEM teachers by 2015 and will aim to prepare 1,200 new STEM teachers by 2020 through new partnerships, as well as ‘bring to market’ tools that support ambitious STEM teaching practices through engagement and collaboration with teacher education organizations across the country.
University of Southern California (USC)- The Rossier School of Education will prepare 2,800 new STEM teachers for five urban school districts using USC’s online platform and learning management system by 2015. Additionally USC will structure supports and incentives to help keep talented STEM teachers in the classroom for at least five years and will provide sustained professional development for new STEM teachers throughout their first five years.
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation will recruit 1,200 new STEM teachers as Woodrow Wilson Fellows by 2015. These Fellows will commit to teach in a high-need urban or rural school for at least three years and receive high-quality mentoring by master teachers and STEM faculty, both during the clinical period and during the first three years of teaching.
IMPLEMENTATION, TIMELINE, AND DELIVERABLES
Carnegie is currently in the process of raising $20 million as the initial core of the fund, with $8.5 million from three organizations (Carnegie, Bechtel, and NewSchools Venture Fund) already secured. Further conversations with additional foundations and corporations are ongoing. Carnegie will also be working closely with the US Department of Education to maximize any public dollars available to be put toward the goals of 100Kin10. Simultaneously, Carnegie is working with the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute and GOOD to design the entry mechanism and proposal portal for organizations working to address the 100Kin10 goal and interested in joining the network. Carnegie hopes to have all of these efforts ready for a public launch by September 2011

Background

Solving the world’s most pressing challenges will require innovations in STEM. From climate change to fiscal meltdowns, renewable energy to eradicating diseases, food security to global and local health, the STEM disciplines are at the very center of our quest to improve our lives and the condition of our world. If we are to bring new ideas to long-standing problems and new talent to emerging opportunities, we need to educate all of our young people to higher levels of understanding in the STEM fields. According to the PCAST report, despite the heroic efforts of our nation’s best teachers and principals, the United States now lags behind other nations in STEM education at the elementary and secondary levels Excellent teachers are critical to better preparing our students in STEM. Unfortunately, too few excellent STEM teachers are in the nation’s classrooms, in part because of a lack of professional respect, the inconsistency of teacher preparation programs, and the salary disparity of teaching relative to other STEM fields.

Progress Update

March 2015

The original commitment pledged to recruit and train 20,000 STEM teachers over three years; it also included raising at least $20M to support the recruitment and preparation work. Since that time, the goal has been realized: over 20,000 STEM teachers were recruited and/or received professional development.

Partnership Opportunities

100Kin10 is committed to continual growth and improvement, and, because of that learning orientation, it is constantly searching for new ways to improve and expand its work. In pursuit of this goal, the network grows its partnership on an annual basis, inviting organizations to apply to become Partners; seeks implementation Partners both inside of and outside of the traditional education space, to support the network and its Partners to expand horizons and push practice; looks for best practices and topic expertise, both around STEM and education and around organizational and leadership strength; welcomes media support, to help raise the profile of the work of its Partners; and pursues financial resources, to help Partners fulfill their commitments and to support the backbone operations of the network.

100Kin10 offers a suite of resources to its Partners, including financial resources, best practices, and topic expertise. Organizations interested in accessing any of these resources should contact 100Kin10 to learn more about joining the network.