Improving Michigan STEM Teachers and Teaching - The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship - October 2016

Oct 15, 2026

Improving Michigan STEM Teachers and Teaching - The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship addresses national pressures to ensure equitable access to highly qualified, effective teachers by focusing on teacher preparation. It details how the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (since 2007) recruits, prepares, and supports STEM educators for high-need schools through strong university-district partnerships, clinically based master’s programs, rigorous selection, mentoring, and third-party evidence assessment. It also explains Michigan’s 2010 initiative with six partner universities and statewide coalition support.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship

Michigan and the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship

The value of the state-based approach to teacher education reform

Improving Michigan STEM Teachers and Teaching: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship October 2016 Suggested Citation Format Woodrow Wilson Foundation, 2016 . Improving Michigan STEM Teachers and Teaching: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship. Princeton, NJ: The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. © 2016 The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Introduction Pressures to improve teaching throughout the United States increase with each new academic year. Fifteen years ago, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind) heralded the new era of the “highly qualified teacher.”More recently, in 2014, the U.S. Department of Education called on states to demonstrate how they would ensure equitable access to effective teachers, looking to states to determine how best to put strong teachers in all classrooms—not just in well-resourced schools. And the recently enacted Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) now looks to implement a new focus on teaching, with new expectations for educators entering the classroom. Essential to realizing these calls for qualified and effective teachers is improving teacher preparation. The nation's teacher education programs are not producing the quantity or quality of teachers needed, particularly in needed subjects. The future demands a new approach. The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation established the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program in 2007 to take up this challenge. Building on seven decades of experience preparing future leaders to address the challenges facing society, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation established a program to recruit, prepare, and support excellent teachers for high-need schools. With a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships provide prospective teachers with the academic preparation, extensive clinical experience, and mentoring necessary to succeed in the classroom. The program is currently offered in five states, in partnership with 28 universities. This multi-state approach has led to the identification of several essential elements for the improvement of teacher education. These shared characteristics include: 1. Focusing on whole states, beginning with the governor and building a statewide, bipartisan coalition of stakeholders ; 2. Requiring strong partnerships between universities and school districts as well as between colleges of education and schools of arts and sciences 3. Establishing accountability mechanisms for participating universities, schools and Fellows; Improving Michigan STEM Teachers and Teaching: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship October 2016 ▪ 1 4. Creating efficient and effective clinically based yearlong (12–15 months) master’s degree STEM teacher education programs; 5. Demanding high selectivity in student admissions and choice of participating universities and highneed school districts; 6. Mentoring both during the program and for several years after an educator is a “teacher of record”; and 7. Requiring third-party, evidence-based assessment of the program’s impact. The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowships have enabled participating universities to create model teacher education programs in Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio. Efforts are under way to expand the program to additional states. Michigan and the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Woodrow Wilson Michigan Teaching Fellowship began in Michigan in 2010, with the generous financial support of the Kellogg Foundation. Woodrow Wilson selected six Michigan universities with the capacity, willingness, and leadership to create model teacher education programs—rigorous, highly selective, clinically based programs integrating disciplinary content and pedagogical

FAQs

What problem does the fellowship aim to address for STEM teaching?

It targets shortcomings in the quantity and quality of teachers produced by teacher education programs, especially in needed subjects, and supports educators entering classrooms with effective preparation.

How does the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship prepare prospective STEM teachers?

It provides academic preparation, extensive clinical experience, and mentoring, delivered through programs offered in multiple states with partnerships between universities and school districts.

What key elements are required for participating programs?

Programs must focus on whole states, establish strong university-district partnerships, include accountability mechanisms, create efficient clinically based yearlong STEM master’s programs, maintain high selectivity, provide long-term mentoring, and use third-party evidence-based assessment.

Oct 15, 2026

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