Fellowship grants could help critical teaching shortages

LAFAYETTE – A big city’s drawing power can make it hard for rural school districts to attract good math and science teachers, but superintendents hope to find help in a fellowship program that starts taking applications this year.\nThe Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is using Indiana to launch a program that pays for a master’s degree for teachers who pledge to teach math and science in high-need secondary schools.\n“These people can go into industry and make a lot more money,” Twin Lakes School Corporation Superintendent Tom Fletcher said. “If they have the good math skills, the good science skills, companies are looking for them.”\nMany people also want to live near big cities or work for larger districts that pay more.\n“Given the choice of a lower-paying job in a small, rural area, and a higher-paying job in a metropolitan area, we tend to lose out,” said John Sayers, superintendent of Carroll Consolidated School Corporation, a district near Lafayette. “You struggle to maintain a program over time.”\nMath and science teachers, especially in rural areas, often are not qualified to teach their classes, said James Fraser, lead consultant for Indiana for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.\n“But somebody’s got to cover the math or science class,” Fraser said. “A significant portion are taught by people who didn’t even minor in math or science.”\nThat can cause problems for students after they leave high school, said John Hill, executive director of the National Rural Education Association based at Purdue University.\n“Their experience isn’t in as great a depth as it needs to be to participate at the next level,” Hill said.\nThe first applications for the foundation program will be taken this year, and the first fellows will be named in 2009.\nSelected participants will get a $30,000 stipend to complete a year-long master’s program at Ball State, Purdue, IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis or the University of Indianapolis. In return, the graduates will agree to teach math and science at high-need secondary schools – both rural and urban – in Indiana for at least three years.\nThese master’s degrees are available for undergraduates finishing their degrees and thinking about teaching or others in the math and science fields who want to change careers.\nThe first graduates of the program will start teaching in 2010