The Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellowship: A Five-Year Statewide Investment to Improve Teacher Preparation - report

Oct 15, 2026

A report on the Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellowship explains why Ohio sought to address STEM teacher shortages and the broader achievement gap. It describes the 2010 announcement of a statewide, five-year investment, the program’s partnerships with seven Ohio universities, and efforts from 2011 to 2016 to redesign teacher education and recruit qualified STEM candidates. The report also reviews the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s prior fellowship models that shaped rigorous selection, clinical placement, mentoring, and high retention.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages37

Reading Time1 h 33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction: Addressing the Shortage of STEM Teachers in Ohio

The Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s History of Education Reform

The Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellowship: A Five-Year Statewide Investment to Improve Teacher Preparation A report by the Woodrow Wilson National FellowshipFoundation February 2017 Introduction: Addressing the Shortage of STEM Teachers in Ohio In March 2010, Arthur Levine, President of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and Eric Fingerhut, then-Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents announced the creation of the Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellowship—the third in a series of state-based programs designed to improve teacher preparation, attract outstanding candidates to teaching, and reduce teacher attrition. In their words,“Ohio needs its young people to be far ahead of [the] curve. We need to give math and science teachers the kind of preparation that truly motivates and equips all our students to succeed. And that requires collaborations among the universities that prepare teachers, the schools where they teach, and the state-level leadership that supports their efforts.” Both Ohio’s state leadership and its foundation community recognized that, to move forward in a global economy, Ohio would need a highly trained workforce that would attract high tech companies to the state. Though STEM shortages have been a pervasive problem for decades, with the election of a new Governor in 2008, there was call to action from state higher education executive officers to address the STEM shortage areas as well as the growing achievement gap. In the years leading up to 2010, the state had significant teacher shortages in ten subject areas, with the greatest need in mathematics, sciences, and special education. These shortages, already severe, were projected to worsen as the state looked to adopt new rules for additional math and science courses required for graduation. There were also indicators that the state would adopt the common core standards, which required additional high level math and science preparation for all high school students taught by highly qualified and “effective” teachers. This program was seen by public and private entities as a way to address teacher shortages, increase the level of teacher performance in STEM subject areas, and help to close a widening achievement gap. Supported by more than $16 million in funding from the State of Ohio and private foundations, the program selected as partners seven Ohio universities: John Carroll University, Ohio State University, Ohio University, the University of Akron, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton, and the University of Toledo. From 2011 to 2016, the WW Ohio Teaching Fellowship worked with these partner institutions to redesign their teacher education programs and recruit highly qualified candidates to careers in teaching. In collaboration with these seven Ohio partner institutions, the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship (WWTF) has recruited and prepared four cohorts of highly qualified STEM teachers for the most challenging and hard-to-fill positions in Ohio’s high-need urban and rural school districts. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has had significant influence in improving and supporting STEM teacher training in Ohio, and the WWTF model has been incorporated into the partner institutions’permanent course and degree offerings. The Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s History of Education Reform Before coming to Ohio, the Foundation already had a history of addressing teacher shortages in Indiana as well as Michigan. In addition, the Foundation could draw on its experiences with recruiting teachers through two other successful national Fellowship programs with which it had honed its capacity to manage a program based within a state as large as Ohio, the seventh most populated state in the nation. The Annenberg Fellowship, based at Stanford University and the Universities of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, was the first of Woodrow Wilson’s model teaching fellowship programs and set the stage for

FAQs

What problem does the Woodrow Wilson Ohio Teaching Fellowship aim to address?

It targets STEM teacher shortages in Ohio, especially in mathematics, sciences, and special education, and aims to improve teacher preparation and reduce attrition.

Which institutions partnered in the program?

Seven Ohio universities partnered: John Carroll University, Ohio State University, Ohio University, the University of Akron, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Dayton, and the University of Toledo.

How did the fellowship influence teacher education and preparation programs?

With partner institutions, the program worked to redesign teacher education offerings and recruit highly qualified STEM teacher candidates for hard-to-fill positions, incorporating the WWTF model into permanent coursework and degrees.

Oct 15, 2026

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