Research continues to show that teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving student achievement. That’s why preparing strong teachers to lead in high-need STEM classrooms—starting with a full year of classroom experience along with their master’s work—is the focus of the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship.

Over the past six years, Dan Wilson, the principal at Lynhurst 7th and 8th Grade Center in Wayne Township, Indiana, has hosted a number of WW Teaching Fellows during their clinical year. In this video, Mr. Wilson—who had been so pleased with WW Teaching Fellows’ work in his school that he now has six of them on staff—considers their long classroom experience to be key to their effectiveness. He says he is “pretty aggressive in getting them to stick around” at the school. And Mr. Wilson knows quality: He was the Indiana Association of School Principals’ 2013 Middle School Principal of the Year.

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