Oakland teaching fellows
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The Oakland Teaching Fellows program is an initiative of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to recruit, select, train, and support outstanding mid-career professionals and recent college graduates to teach in critical shortage area subjects in high-need schools. The Oakland Teaching Fellows program places new teachers in special education, math, and science classes. These subjects are typically the hardest to staff in urban school districts, as is true in Oakland.
The program was created in 2005, as a partnership between the district and The New Teacher Project (TNTP). TNTP is a national non-profit organization that partners with educational entities to increase the number of outstanding individuals who become public school teachers and create environments for all educators that maximize their impact on student achievement. Since its inception 1997, The New Teacher Project has worked with school districts, colleges of education and state departments of education to enhance their capacity to recruit, select, and train outstanding new teachers. TNTP has started more than 40 programs in 20 states.
The Oakland Teaching Fellows has goals similar to other Fellows programs, including the New York City Teaching Fellows, the Miami Teaching Fellows, and the Chicago Teaching Fellows. To ensure that every classroom in Oakland is staffed by an outstanding teacher who will work to close the achievement gap, the Oakland Teaching Fellows program aggressively recruits top candidates with a track record of success, conducts a rigorous selection process culminating in day-long interview events, and prepares Fellows to enter the classroom through an intensive Training Institute that combines teaching theory and practice.
The Oakland Teaching Fellows program has been credited in part for Oakland's ability to start the 2005-2006 school year with a highly-qualified teacher in nearly every special education classroom for the first time in recent memory.
