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NTHS to Benefit from New National Teaching Fellowship Program
By Christine Marson

The Indiana Woodrow Wilson Fellowship invites New Technology schools to participate in its program designed to place more math and science teachers within Indiana’s classrooms.

Funded through a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment and endorsed by Governor Mitch Daniels, the fellowship program will provide a $30,000 stipend to 80 fellows who will complete a specially-designed master's degree program at one of four participating Indiana universities—University of Indianapolis, Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Purdue University. Fellows will represent outstanding college graduates and career changers from across the country who commit to teach math or science for three years in a high-need urban or rural Indiana high school. The program includes in-depth clinical experiences within partnering school districts during the yearlong preparation process and provides mentoring and support throughout the three-year fellowship period.

Each participating university offers varying programs. Ball State's program utilizes the Urban Semester Program and PhysTEC Mentoring Program. At Purdue University, fellows will focus on the particular needs of students in rural science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms, including such elements as educational technology and distance learning. The program at IUPUI concentrates on the Transition to Teaching curriculum and includes integrated STEM courses that are designed to prepare fellows for urban schools. The University of Indianapolis is the only institution to specifically offer fellows a unique project-based learning curriculum based on the Buck Institute for Education model.

"University of Indianapolis fellows will be trained in project-based learning and will be ready to teach in an urban New Technology High School, as well as schools incorporating other inquiry-based methods," said Dr. Jennifer Drake, Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows program director at the University of Indianapolis.

University of Indianapolis fellowship placement goes first to program partners Indianapolis Public Schools, M.S.D. of Wayne Township, and M.S.D. of Decatur Township. The university then will expand placements to other schools within its network.

"Currently, we're gauging NTHS' interest in this program," said Dr. Drake. "We see this as a way of providing NTHS with a pool of highly-qualified candidates, trained to use project-based learning and familiar with the New Tech model."

Applications for the program are due by December 15, 2008. For more information on the program, contact Dr. Drake at jdrake@uindy.edu or visit http://www.woodrow.org/fellowships/teaching/Indiana/.

The Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship is an initiative of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which selected Indiana as the national pilot site for the program in 2007. The program will launch in July 2009 with the first fellows prepared for placement in 2010.