For further information contact:
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Public Affairs 212-207-6273

New Fellowships to Improve Teacher Education

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Annenberg Foundation launched a $6 million effort on December 19, 2007 to improve teacher education and to attract more of the country’s top graduates and mid-career professionals to teaching careers at high-poverty and struggling schools. Read the press release.

The new Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellowship will provide a $30,000 stipend and one year of graduate education at four of the nation’s top teacher-education programs to candidates who agree to teach for three years in low-income schools.

Participating institutions—Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and University of Washington—were selected based on their innovative teaching preparation programs, existing partnerships with high-need schools, and their commitment to follow-up mentoring and rigorous evaluation.

“If we really want to continue to improve student achievement we have no choice but to improve teaching—the Fellowship does just that,” said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “The new program captures Leonore Annenberg’s commitment to inspiring, encouraging, and supporting the professional men and women who are shaping our next generation.”

An important component of Carnegie Corporation’s efforts to create pathways to educational and economic opportunity is the foundation’s focus on strategies to improve the recruitment, preparation and retention of high-quality teachers and educational leaders.