Robert Harding | robert.harding@lee.net
In mid-May, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of a new program that would pay high-performing teachers stipends for mentoring current or future teachers.
The New York State Master Teacher program is modeled after Math for America, an organization with four programs, including master teachers. Cuomo said Math for America will be providing support for the state's initiative. (Math for America said they are still negotiating their role in the program.)
Math for America President John Ewing said master teachers helps bring the best educators together and form a community.
"The key is selection. We try to choose the very best teachers that we can and now for master teachers, in both math and science," Ewing said in an interview. "We have a very elaborate selection process. We choose people that we think are really outstanding both in terms of content knowledge but also in the craft of teaching. They really have to be accomplished teachers in every sense."
The state's program, like Math for America's program, will pay participating math and science master teachers — they must first apply and get approval before participating — $15,000 a year to mentor current and future teachers. The state Master Teacher program will launch this fall in four regions, including Central New York.
“We want the best possible teachers in every New York classroom educating our children," Cuomo said when announcing the launch of the program. “As part of the state's work to transform our education system and put students first, we are committed to investing in great teachers to educate our students and create a highly-trained workforce to drive our future economy. This program will reward those teachers who work harder to make the difference and whose students perform better as a result.”
Initiatives like the state's master teachers have great potential. Ewing said, with Math for America, they have seen how some of the best teachers in the program can work together and make an impression on young teachers they are mentoring.
"The great thing about this is that we know that these are really accomplished teachers that (young teachers) are working with and everything fits together. All of the cooperating teachers talk to one another. They talk to us," Ewing said. "Initially, we get a chance to train them on how to be a cooperating teacher. It really does affect the younger teachers in a profound way."
Ewing also shared his perspective on how this fits in with the general debate over education reform. Most education reform discussions look at low performing teachers, he said. But Math for America focuses on the top performing educators.
"The difference between Math for America and much of the rest of education reform at the moment is that we start at a very different place. Most reform starts by looking at the weakest teachers or the ones that are having trouble and tries to fix them. Fix them by either getting rid of them or by making them better somehow," he said. "We start with the best teachers and we sort of believe that bringing them together, giving them a chance to work together and then giving them a chance to work with other teachers — to reach out to their colleagues and to young teachers and teachers in training — that this is the right way to make teaching into the kind of profession that I think really good people will find attractive. If you don't do that, if teaching becomes less and less attractive as a profession because of all the things that are going on right now, I don't care how hard you try. You're not going to get great people to go into teaching."
Math for America hosts its programs in cities like New York City, Boston and Washington D.C. Ewing said 500 teachers will be participating in Math for America's programs in New York City next year. Nationwide, 750 teachers will be part of the organization's programs next year.
You can learn more about Math for America online at
www.mathforamerica.org.
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Tuesday, August 6th 2013 at 1:00PM
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