Application Information
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Introduction
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- FAQ (printer friendly PDF - 97kb, 9 pages)
- Backgrounder (printer friendly PDF - 40kb, 1 page)
- Materials Kit (backgrounder, FAQ, posters as a printer friendly PDF - 577kb, 13 pages)
The Woodrow Wilson
Indiana Teaching Fellowship
NOTE: Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 cohort of
Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows.The application deadline is January 12, 2010.
An Introduction to the WW Indiana Teaching Fellowship
Why is this Fellowship different?
What’s so special about the kind of preparation this program offers?
Why the emphasis on mentoring?
After the Fellowship period, do I just go off on my own and teach?
Why a Teaching Fellowship?
Research has shown that attracting the best and brightest teachers to high-need classrooms is the single most powerful way to close the achievement gap and ensure success for all students. Yet too few of our most talented college graduates and midcareer professionals choose to teach or to remain in teaching. The Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship is designed to encourage individuals with outstanding backgrounds in their disciplines to pursue careers as educators, as well as offer the preparation that will help them succeed in the classroom over the long term. [Top]
Why is this Fellowship different?
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, the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellows will help elevate the teaching profession and bring prestige back to this crucial profession. [Top]
Why the STEM disciplines?
Indiana’s pilot version of 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 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. [Top]
What’s so special about the kind of preparation this program offers?
Some teachers’ preparation, in a traditional education school curriculum, focuses on sitting at a university campus learning about teaching, with only brief exposure to a practicum—“student teaching”—at the end of the program. The Woodrow Wilson Indiana 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. [Top]
Why the emphasis on mentoring?
Nationally, about half of all new teachers leave the field within the first five years—in part because they have been prepared in traditional programs that did not leave them feeling ready for classroom realities. The Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship seeks to address this not only by offering rich clinical preparation before the classroom, but also by providing continued support from veteran teachers and university faculty throughout the first three years of teaching. Studies show that strong mentoring is one of the most important factors in new teachers’ success and satisfaction. [Top]
After the Fellowship period, do I just go off on my own and teach?
No. From the beginning, Fellows are part of a cohort that will teach in schools in the same district at the same time and continue working together, helping to promote a community of support and learning within and across their schools. The ongoing connection to the Fellowship program may also provide future opportunities, like National Board Certification—a voluntary additional certification that provides a nationally recognized credential—continuing engagement with the home university, and the possibility of mentoring roles for future Fellows. [Top]
In addition, all Woodrow Wilson Fellows become lifelong members of a national network of intellectual leaders. Today’s 20,000 Fellows include 13 Nobel Laureates, 35 MacArthur “genius grant” recipients, 14 Pulitzer Prize winners, two Fields Medalists in mathematics and many other noted scholars and leaders. [Top]
For answers to more specific questions about program terms and logistics, visit the FAQ page.