New York City Teaching Fellows
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The NYC Teaching Fellows is an alternative certification program. It was founded in August, 2000 as a collaboration between The New Teacher Project (TNTP) and the New York City Board of Education to address and respond to the largest teacher shortage the NYC Department of Education had faced in decades. The program was designed to raise the quality of education in New York City public schools by attracting professionals from other fields into the classroom as teachers. Many accepted Fellows have almost no teaching experience, and include recent college graduates, as well as former accountants, nurses, chief executives, police officers, secretaries, artists, journalists, and retirees. The Fellows program replaced an earlier program in which completely uncertified individuals were hired to teach in high-need New York City public schools.
Contents |
[edit] Recruitment
The mission of the program is to recruit highly qualified professionals from all backgrounds and top notch recent college graduates from all majors into the teaching profession. Applicants may not already hold a teacher certification, although certified teachers are encouraged to apply to Teach NYC, another teacher recruitment program in New York City. The Teaching Fellows program is advertised to college career placement offices, and on the internet, as well as in a series of famous ads in the New York City subway.
New Fellows include recent college graduates from New York and around the country, as well as professionals from all walks of life, such as displaced information technologists and bored engineers. They often include people with some experience teaching in private schools, who are looking for a quick way to become certified to teach in public ones. Many people relocate to the city from across the country to participate in the program.
[edit] Incentives
Teaching Fellows work under an alternative certification from the New York State Department of Education while earning full salary (as of October 1, 2006, starting at $42,500) and benefits (including both standard health care benefits from the DOE and the extra benefits provided to members of the UFT). At the same time, they work towards a master's degree in education. The degree is subsidized -- fellows pay $4000 in about 44 $90 installments deducted from their checks, while the Department of Education pays for the rest of their tuition. The master's degree must be completed within three years, although many fellows complete the program in two. Teacher salaries increase after the completion of 30 credits beyond the bachelor's degree, and after the receipt of a master's degree.
Fellows can also receive AmeriCorps education grants, totalling $4,750, for their service. If they continue to teach in high-need schools, they may later be eligible for other federal loan forgiveness programs.
[edit] Training
Training begins during seven very intense weeks over the summer, although there is now a mid-year program through which some teachers begin in October or January, in order to replace vacancies that come up in a system of 80,000 active teachers when someone quits, retires or expires.
Fellows are assigned to study at twelve participating NYC universities, including City College of New York, Pace University, Brooklyn College, Lehman College, Fordham University, Mercy College, Long Island University, Queens College, Hunter College, and St. John's University. Fellows are assigned to universities based on their subject area and region placements -- a Fellow does not get to choose which university they study at. At the beginning of pre-service training, Fellows complete an application for admission to the graduate program to which they have been assigned.
Summer pre-service training includes university coursework, a "Student Achievement Framework" session with an advisor who's previously completed the Fellows program, content-specific workshops, mandatory certification workshops, and a component of student-teaching/fieldwork in an assigned summer school in their region.
In 2002, the Teaching Fellows began a Math Immersion program to help prepare people without math degrees to be math teachers; a Science Immersion program was later added. The majority of math teaching fellows attend the session of Math Immersion training, which takes place in the two weeks prior to regular pre-service training, and covers the basic content of the CST and high school curriculum in their assigned subject area. Immersion Fellows are awarded an extra stipend for their time -- in 2006, it was $1000.
Fellows receive a modest stipend to live in New York over this summer. Many fellows take out loans, work another job, or spend savings in order to get through this summer, since the stipend ($2500 in 2006) is widely acknowledged to be less than two months' living expenses in the city.
Fellows must continue to take courses towards their master's degree throughout the next 2-3 years, although they generally only take a course or two every semester. Unfortunately, Fellows have reported widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of their education, both at the schools of education and in the seven week summer preparation which, although "intense" in terms of time allotted is widely acknowledged to be dramatically short on content.
[edit] Certification
Teaching Fellows must apply for a Transitional B license from the New York State Department of Education. Unlike other teaching certificates, the Transitional B certificate is sent, not to the applicant, but to the university where the applicant is completing their master's degree coursework. In addition to being linked to the Fellow's university program, the certificate is specific to a subject area and a grade level ("primary" (K-6), "middle" (5-9), or "secondary" (7-12)). Fellows must continue to be in good standing at their university in order for their certificate to be valid.
The requirements for applying for this Transitional B license may vary by university, but generally include:
- university coursework
- passing standardized tests: the LAST (Liberal Arts and Sciences Test) and CST (Content Specialty Test)
- fieldwork component
- fingerprinting by the DOE
In addition, people with Transitional B licenses are guaranteed mentorship throughout their first year of teaching.
Within five years of receiving a Transitional B license, a teacher must apply for an Initial Certificate, which is the certificate a person just graduating with a degree in Education would teach under. After receiving the Initial Certificate, a Teaching Fellow is qualified to teach anywhere in New York State, as they now hold a standard, rather than an alternative, certification. At the completion of their master's degree, they may apply for a Professional Teaching Certificate, which is good indefinitely, as long as one completes 175 hours of professional development every 5 years.
Teaching Fellows who joined prior to 2004 were certified through a slightly different process, culminating in earning a now impossible-to-obtain permanent certification.
[edit] Job Placement
Fellows who successfully complete pre-service training over the summer are guaranteed a teaching position with the NYC Department of Education; however, they must still interview over the summer with principals and other school representatives to find such a position for themselves. While this is an extra burden during an intensive summer of training, it also has the benefit of allowing new teachers to find a position in a school where they feel relatively comfortable. And since the entire city has a teacher shortage, Teaching Fellows are not limited to the hardest-to-staff schools -- many seek and find employment in some of the nicer schools throughout New York.
The difficulty of finding a job varies from year to year. In 2006, teacher hiring was delayed by new contract provisions. Incumbent teachers enjoyed increased freedom through the start of August in switching schools. Because of this freedom, Fellows as well as other new teachers were competing for vacancies with more senior candidates and principals had more options in staffing their schools. Ten percent of Fellows, along with other teachers with commitments from the NYCDOE were were placed in regional reserve pools (ATR) and assigned to schools in their regions as designated substitutes. While in the ATR, Fellows received a full teachers salary and benefits until December 1, 2006.
[edit] Success
Many experienced teachers agree that the first year of teaching is one of the hardest of anyone's life, and the tough environment of the NYC schools makes this no easier. Fellows often have great difficulty getting up to speed at their new jobs. They must juggle master's degree coursework with planning coursework for their own students. Teaching is not an "easy" job, and Fellows should be well aware of what they're getting into.
However, many view the Teaching Fellows as a "trial by fire" for new teachers, remembering the classic line from the song "New York, New York": "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere". The line is true. NY state counties and areas outside of NYC are impressed by the successful Fellow, and finding a teaching job in a middle or upper middle-class New York suburb after one's contractual obligations and licensing requirements are met will be far easier. Unfortunately, as a program attempting to fill the teaching shortage in New York City, where teacher turnover is one of the biggest problems, doing this runs counter to the goals of those running the Fellows program.
Overall, the Teaching Fellows program has successfully filled the teaching shortage in New York City. This year, NYC public schools opened without many math vacancies. Currently, 8,000 active Fellows account for approximately 11% of all active teachers citywide, including 1/4 of all math teachers. The program boasts that 88% of Fellows who start teaching return for their second year. This far exceeds the national average.[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- NYC Teaching Fellows Official site
- Summary of program on ed.gov Report on NYCTF
- A study by the National Center for Alternative Certification, with background information Why Do Fellows Stick Around?
- The New Teacher Project www.tntp.org
