FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, September 10, 2014

CONTACT:
Patrick Riccards | Director of Media Relations & Strategy | (703) 298‐8283

Woodrow Wilson Foundation to New York Times: Excellent Teachers, Both Men and Women, Are the Result of High-Quality Teacher Education Programs  

WW Responds to NYT News Analysis “Why Don’t More Men Go Into Teaching”

PRINCETON, N.J. – The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation issued the following statement in response to Motoko Rich’s news analysis, “Why Don’t More Men Go Into Teaching?,” published September 6, 2014 in The New York Times:

“Motoko Rich is absolutely right. We need the best candidates to go into the teaching profession. Collectively, we need to do everything we can to ensure our schools, particularly those that are high need, have excellent teachers leading all classrooms.

To achieve this, we must recognize the importance of high-quality teacher preparation programs that ensure teachers to be have the pedagogy, clinical experiences, and mentoring and support necessary to achieve. We must redesign our approach to teacher education, requiring greater rigor and stronger relevance to where instruction is headed, both in the near and long term.

An example of this new path is the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows program. Our innovative program is helping develop the next generation of STEM teachers in states like Georgia, Indiana, and New Jersey. We are partnering with 28 universities in five states to improve teacher education and, in the process, prepare excellent teachers for the 21st century classroom.

This focus on rigor and impact directly addresses the concerns Rich and others raise. This year, 45 percent of our Teaching Fellows in Indiana are male. In Ohio, 49 percent are men. And in New Jersey, the majority of our Teaching Fellows, 52 percent, are male.

What does this tell us? A high-quality, rigorous teacher education program attracts our best future educators, both male and female.

This should not be an issue of men versus women. Instead, we should be focusing on how to improve our teacher education programs in general. The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship offers a proven solution, and the results speak for themselves. We know what a difference well-prepared teachers, male or female, make when it comes to both student learning and achievement outcomes. And we are working to get more of those teachers in our high-need schools.”

For more information on the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and its Teaching Fellows program, please contact Patrick Riccards at 703-298-8283 or [email protected].

###

About the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (www.woodrow.org) identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges. The Foundation supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society.

 

---