Recap: Project Tomorrow at the 2015 California STEM Symposium

This is a special blog post from Project Tomorrow Direct of Advancement, Greg Nicholson:

We enjoyed seeing many colleagues and friends yesterday at the 2015 California STEM Symposium, and making new friends in our two sessions:  “The Gender Divide and Digital Learning in STEM Fields” and “Recruiting the Next Generation of STEM Teachers through YouthTEACH2Learn.”  Both topics have been much in the news lately, and so interest and attendance was high. 

In the second session, we discussed the fact that the teaching shortage, especially in STEM disciplines, has reached crisis proportions.  In California, according to the California Department of Education, the school year began with 21,500 open teaching positions, while only 15,000 new teaching credentials are issued per year.  This is a result, in part, of a 55% reduction in enrollment in teacher preparation programs in California in recent years.  Unfortunately, the problem is a national one; from 2010 to 2014 there has been a 30% drop in enrollment in teacher education.  The predictable result is an increase in the number of emergency credentials issued to underqualified teachers: up 36% in one year in California.

Project Tomorrow’s YouthTEACH2Learn (YT2L) program is addressing this crisis by moving the starting line for teacher recruitment from college to high school.  YT2L is a science and math education program in which high school students take a full year class to learn about teaching math and science. The students develop a series of hands-on science and math lessons and teach these standards-based lessons in local elementary school classrooms on a regular basis throughout the school year, increasing the time that elementary students have in authentic science and math instruction and allowing high school students to gain real world experiences within teaching.

In our session yesterday, we shared newly released YT2L program results from 2014-15.  Some of the highlights include:

• Increased student interest in teaching: 63% indicated that they are now interested in teaching after taking the course (51% were considering it before)
• 93% of participants were comfortable managing a classroom; teaching skills improved on all indicators as a result of the program
• Plans for attending a 4 year college rose from 87% to 94% from the beginning of the program to the end
• 84% of elementary teachers said their students were more excited about learning science after YT2L high school students taught them science lessons

Thank you to everyone who attended our sessions, and especially to the teachers and students of YouthTEACH2Learn!  We will continue to share our results, and look for more information on student interest in teaching careers as a result of a special question on Speak Up 2015, which is available now!

Don't miss Project Tomorrow's sessions at the California STEM Symposium!

We are excited to attend this year's California STEM Symposium at the Anaheim Convention Center and are thrilled to host two sessions today, October 29th! If you are at the symposium, be sure to mark your calendars for the following sessions:

The Gender Divide and Digital Learning in STEM Fields
Thursday, October 29
9:40am to 10:55 am
Room 206B
Presented by Ann McMullan, Project Tomorrow Consultant

Speak Up Project Research annually demonstrates the connection between gender differences in students’ use of digital resources for learning, and how girls want to use technology to explore STEM fields. This session will review the latest CA Speak Up results and discuss promising practices for erasing gender divides in learning.

Recruiting the Next Generation of STEM Teachers Through YouthTEACH2Learn
Thursday, October 29
3:30pm to 4:45pm
Room 207C
Presented by Gregory Nicholson, Director of Advancement, Project Tomorrow

YouthTEACH2Learn is a high school class teaching students how to develop and teach mathematics and science lessons to elementary students. Presenters share the experiences of students, past and present, and review seven years of research on this program’s impact on student interest and motivation to pursue STEM teaching careers.

If attending, send us a shoutout on Twitter at @SpeakUpEd and @ProjectTomorrow. We look forward to seeing you all at the Anaheim Convention Center today!

Project Tomorrow at the California STEM Symposium

This year's California STEM Symposium takes place from October 29 to October 30, 2015 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Now in it's third year, the California STEM Symposium continues to improve STEM instruction by defining the "how" or how to teach and integrate STEM subject matter and how to make it relevant and engaging for all students, as well as connect teachers and organizations that are working to build tomorrow's STEM workforce with like-minded partners and resources.

Project Tomorrow is excited to host two sessions at this year's event! If you are attending this year's symposium, be sure to mark your calendars for the following sessions:

The Gender Divide and Digital Learning in STEM Fields
Thursday, October 29
9:40am to 10:55 am
Room 206B
Presented by Ann McMullan, Project Tomorrow Consultant

Speak Up Project Research annually demonstrates the connection between gender differences in students’ use of digital resources for learning, and how girls want to use technology to explore STEM fields. This session will review the latest CA Speak Up results and discuss promising practices for erasing gender divides in learning.

Recruiting the Next Generation of STEM Teachers Through YouthTEACH2Learn
Thursday, October 29
3:30pm to 4:45pm
Room 207C
Presented by Gregory Nicholson, Director of Advancement, Project Tomorrow

YouthTEACH2Learn is a high school class teaching students how to develop and teach mathematics and science lessons to elementary students. Presenters share the experiences of students, past and present, and review seven years of research on this program’s impact on student interest and motivation to pursue STEM teaching careers.

Are you attending this year's California STEM Symposium? If so, let us know. We look forward to seeing you there!

Welcome back to school with YouthTEACH2Learn and Educators Rising California!

As students and teachers head back to school, we wish them the very best for a successful year.  The first day of school always brings with it a slew of other “firsts” and new experiences.  For Project Tomorrow and our Tomorrow’s Teachers Initiative, which seeks to recruit the next great generation of teachers by building new, early career pipelines, 2015-16 is especially remarkable for its “firsts.”  From the first day of teaching for alum from our first YouthTEACH2Learn math class in 2010, to the first day of new YouthTEACH2Learn classes for El Modena High School and Canyon High School in Orange Unified, to the first ever YouthTEACH2Learn Environmental Science course, piloted at San Juan Hills High School, we could not be more excited that the school year is here.

In another first, we just completed the first two days of instruction in a partnership with Loyola Marymount University and the Mathematics Leadership Corps.  Nine AP Calculus high school students from Culver City High School are earning a LMU Extension Certificate as Common Core Math Tutors, and will be providing tutoring during the school day for Algebra I students as part of a pilot of YouthTEACH2Learn.  In the first two days, the students began to learn about the thousands of decisions teachers make every day, from when to question, to listen, to guide, and to model for their students.  At the end of the second day, after role-playing scenarios such as “you are working with a student who only wants the answer to the problem: Solve the system of linear equations 3x – 2y = 12 and –x – 2y = -20,” the instructor asked, “Teaching: easy or hard?”  The students sat in stunned silence.  Like most people, these students had probably not given much thought to the intellectual challenge teaching presents.  Our Tomorrow’s Teachers Initiative programs, YouthTEACH2Learn and Educators Rising California, provide high school students with these challenging experiences so that they will know what teaching is really like, and can experience the rewards of rising to the challenge and making an impact in another student’s life.

Rising to the challenge requires support, so we work to ensure that teachers have the support and resources they need to best meet the needs of the students in our programs.  Project Tomorrow could not do this successfully without the support of our partners and financial contributors.  We are thrilled to acknowledge new support this year for our Tomorrow’s Teachers Initiative programs from Bank of America, Clovis Unified School District, and the Leonetti/O’Connell Family Foundation.  They join continuing and returning sponsors for 2015-16, such as the Annenberg Foundation, the Green Foundation, Pacific Life Foundation, Rancho Santiago Community College District, and the Roosters Foundation.  With their help, we look forward to the challenges, rewards, and successes ahead in 2015-16.

To learn more about YouthTEACH2Learn, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/programs/yt2l.html or click on the logo below.

To learn more about Educators Rising California, visit https://www.educatorsrising.org/ or click on the logo below.

SoCal schools face a teacher shortage

Southern California school districts are facing what Donna Glassman-Sommer, a Tulare County Office of Education administrator, calls "the perfect storm" - a combination of teachers going into retirement, a decline of enrollment in teaching credential programs, and increased state funding for new hires.

The 2013-2014 annual report from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing shows that enrollment in teacher preparation courses has been in a steady decline for twelve consecutive years, with the number of new teachers down 26% over the last five years. One reason for this are budget cuts that have driven several experienced teachers from the field and students in teacher preparation programs to change majors.

In order to combat the lack of recruitable credentialed teachers, some schools turn to teacher interns and substitutes. While interns usually have a bachelor's degree, teacher training, and no classroom experience, substitute teachers must be enrolled in a four-year California university/college with at least ninety units completed. With these empty spots filled for the time being, districts still worry about filling classrooms with fully credentialed teachers. “I think it's especially going to be urgent coming July in 2016 as we see all of the baby boomers, we would like to say, retiring and deciding to move on to another part of their life,” Patricia Pernin, president of California Teacher Corps, said.

There does seem to be good news for Southern California schools, though - incoming college freshmen have expressed a greater interest in teaching, and report noticing that the job market in education is getting better. Schools remain hopeful for this next generation of tech-savvy and Common Core trained teachers - but for the time being, continue searching for teachers for the upcoming school year.

To learn more, check out the original article, "SoCal schools may see more interns, substitutes in classrooms as teacher shortage grows,"by Mary Plummer for Southern California Public Radio.

Two of Project Tomorrow's initiatives, YouthTEACH2Learn and the California Future Educators Association (F.E.A.), work to combat the issue of the teacher shortage.

YouthTEACH2Learn is a career exploration program where students explore teaching as a career. During the course, the students gain practical experience by observing elementary school classrooms, learning how to teach, developing and teaching standards-based lessons to younger students in neighboring elementary schools and participating in local community service projects. In addition, students also have the opportunity to meet local educators, attend career panels and visit local college campuses in order to determine if the teaching is a "good-fit" for their professional goals. To learn more about YouthTEACH2Learn, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/programs/yt2l.html.

California F.E.A. encourages students to learn about careers in education and aid them in exploring teaching while providing meaningful opportunities to receive the mentoring and support they need to actualize their career aspirations. CFEA has made several accomplishments during the 2014-2015 school year, including but not limited to increasing its chapters from 3 to 14 (with membership increasing from 55 to 358), producing a webinar on National Board Certification with National University, and doubling participation in the CFEA state conference with over 400 members in attendance. To learn more about California F.E.A., visit http://www.tomorrow.org/fea/.

Throwback Thursday

Happy Throwback Thursday! Each Throwback Thursday will feature past Project Tomorrow news, events, data reports, and more. This week we're focusing on our YouthTEACH2Learn program, with a testimonial from past participant Shelly Becerra, class of 2011 from Trabuco Hills High School. Check out her experience below:

YouthTEACH2Learn was an exciting and unique opportunity for me. Throughout high school I was consistently split between teaching and computer engineering as my preferred career choices. I had always loved kids, but also math and technology. My sophomore year I took Honors physics with Mrs. Fliegler, one of the YouthTEACH2Learn teachers at Trabuco. She always talked about how fun and exciting the class was. My junior year I took Honors Chemistry with Mr. Camilling, the other YouthTEACH2Learn teacher at our school. He also expressed his love of the class. My senior year I finally enrolled in YouthTEACH2Learn. I had an amazing experience. Our school team, Melinda Heights, was so great. Our kids were awesome, and really enjoyed us teaching them.

There are a few key moments really stand out in my mind. One was the fire alarm. Right in the middle of one of our lessons, the fire alarm went off. It was a little stressful trying to figure out what to do, but in the end we thought everything through and finished teaching our lesson. The next experience I will always remember was a time when a cute little girl, Regan gave us a thank you note. It was extremely touching. The final moment that stands out was our last lesson. We were saying good-bye to Mrs. Cline’s class, walking them out to recess, when one by one, the elementary kids came up and hugged us all. It was so unexpected, but amazing! Our team left that day a little sad, but happy that we touched those kids' lives like that.

I can remember learning from high school students in the YouthTEACH2Learn program when I was little, and after being in the program, I truly understand how great the class is. This program was the key factor in my choosing teaching as my career path. I am beginning school at Cal State Fullerton as a Math major, in hopes of becoming a high school math teacher.

The YouthTEACH2Learn program is a career exploration program where students explore teaching as a career. During the course, the students gain practical experience by observing elementary school classrooms, learning how to teach, developing and teaching standards-based lessons to younger students in neighboring elementary schools and participating in local community service projects. In addition, students also have the opportunity to meet local educators, attend career panels and visit local college campuses in order to determine if the teaching is a "good-fit" for their professional goals.

Interested in YouthTEACH2Learn? Click here to see it in action, and click here to learn more about the program. 

The Shortage of Substitute Teachers

The state of Minnesota is facing a struggle that several other states know well- a shortage of substitute teachers.

School districts in Rochester, Minnesota report difficulties finding substitute teachers, with principals and superintendents having to cover the vacancies. Full-time teachers also report filling in for other teachers, which cuts into their preparation time. In an interview with the Post-Bulletin, Kingland High School principal Jim Hecimovich said he has had to fill in for sick teachers regularly.

Some education leaders say the substitution teacher shortage is caused by a good job market; "The job market has become so good in the Rochester area, people are not relying on substitute teaching but are finding different careers," said Byron Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Elstad. However, other education leaders blame the shortage on a larger problem - there are simply fewer people in teaching. Dover-Eyota superintendent Bruce Klaehn said he noticed a decline in the number of job applicants for teaching positions.

Two of Project Tomorrow's initiatives, YouthTEACH2Learn and the California Future Educators Association (F.E.A.), work to combat this issue.

YouthTEACH2Learn is a career exploration program where students explore teaching as a career. During the course, the students gain practical experience by observing elementary school classrooms, learning how to teach, developing and teaching standards-based lessons to younger students in neighboring elementary schools and participating in local community service projects. In addition, students also have the opportunity to meet local educators, attend career panels and visit local college campuses in order to determine if the teaching is a "good-fit" for their professional goals. To learn more about YouthTEACH2Learn, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/programs/yt2l.html.

California F.E.A. encourages students to learn about careers in education and aid them in exploring teaching while providing meaningful opportunities to receive the mentoring and support they need to actualize their career aspirations. To learn more about California F.E.A., visit http://www.tomorrow.org/fea/.

Interested in reading the original article? Click here to read "Area districts desperate for substitute teachers" by the Post-Bulletin.

Exciting News! Project Tomorrow Named as Partner in 100Kin10, National Network to Grow STEM Teaching Force!

Project Tomorrow commits to advancing the goal of recruiting, preparing, and retaining 100,000 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers in 10 years

100Kin10, a multi-sector network addressing the national imperative to train 100,000 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers by 2021, today announced that Project Tomorrow has been accepted as a partner. 

With a highly selective and competitive selection process, Project Tomorrow is extremely honored to be one of only 31 organizations chosen nationwide in this year's application process. As part of 100Kin10, Project Tomorrow will recruit 2,050 excellent STEM teacher candidates, with 25% (512) from groups traditionally under-represented in STEM, in California by 2018, as measured by the number of students majoring or minoring in education and a science or math discipline.

More and better-trained STEM teachers are essential to prepare America’s students to fully participate in our democracy and to understand and respond to complex national and global challenges. To compete in the global marketplace and provide opportunity to all young Americans, all students—not  just those fortunate enough to attend certain schools— must have basic STEM skills and knowledge. Project Tomorrow is one of nearly 200 100Kin10 partners unified by a single, ambitious goal: to prepare all students with the high-quality STEM knowledge and skills to equip them for success in college and the workplace.

Organizations are accepted as 100Kin10 partners following a rigorous vetting process conducted by a team of partner reviewers and the University of Chicago. Reviewers are looking for organizations that bring innovation, boldness, and a proven track-record to their commitment(s) toward expanding, improving, and retaining the best of the nation’s STEM teaching force, or building the 100Kin10 movement. 

A complete list of partners—with new partners highlighted— is available on the 100Kin10 website. 

The Teach Campaign: Recruiting New Teachers Who will be able to Make a Difference in Not Only Their Students’ Lives But also in the Profession Itself

“If you can’t do, teach” is just one of several negative sentiments towards teaching that has made education an undesirable profession. However, with the predicted one million teachers that are set to retire in the next four to six years, the profession needs as many bright and eager new educators as it can get. In order to deal with this change the Department of Education created Teach, a campaign that hopes to combat negative sentiments and attract high-achieving college graduates.

Under the slogan “Make More. Teach,” the campaign uses videos and radio announcements to portray teaching as meaningful and captivating as more popular careers, such as medicine and law. “The challenge is to change the conversation around teaching so that it becomes the career that you want your child to go into rather than the career that you counsel children out of,” explains Kathy Payne, the senior director of education leadership at State Farm.

One of the negative sentiments towards teaching is that there are not enough job openings for hopeful teachers. With the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers, there is now “an amazing chance to make a difference for decades to come,” says Arne Duncan, secretary of education. Through financial support from sponsors, Teach is able to hire recruiters to visit college campuses in order to speak to undergraduate students about a future career in teaching. The campaign also deals with the battles within the public education system concerning the use of standardized testing in teacher performance evaluations and the rollout of the new Common Core standards. “If you find different ways to communicate with and teach kids, where it’s not just that same old thing…that’s what’s going to get those test scores raised,” says Cliff Skeet, group creative director at McGarryBowen, the advertising agency that developed the videos and ads used by the campaign.

The Teach campaign aims to recruit top students into the teaching field, making the profession as competitive and invigorating as medicine, law, and engineering. “Teachers today are breaking down obstacles,” says former teacher Taylor Mali. “[They are] finding innovative ways to instill old lessons, proving that greatness can be found in everyday places.” Through the campaign, the Department of Education hopes to recruit new teachers who will be able to make a difference in not only their students’ lives but also in the profession itself.

Here at Project Tomorrow, our mission is to ensure that today's students are well prepared to be tomorrow's innovators, leaders and engaged citzens of the world. Through our YouthTEACH2Learn program and the Future Educators Association of California we are working towards preparing the next great generation of teachers.

The YouthTEACH2Learn program is a career exploration program where students explore teaching as a career. During the course, the students gain practical experience by observing elementary school classrooms, learning how to teach, developing and teaching standards-based lessons to younger students in neighboring elementary schools and participating in local community service projects. To learn more about YouthTEACH2Learn log onto http://www.tomorrow.org/programs/yt2l.html.

The Future Educators Association of California, an initiative of Project Tomorrow, was established in order to “attract, equip and provide experiences for students who are exploring teaching as a future career; to develop essential skills that will lead to highly trained and qualified teachers.” Now, more than ever, we must invest & support our future educators in order to plan for a bright tomorrow. To learn more about F.E.A California, log onto http://www.tomorrow.org/fea/.

Read the article: Campaign Seeks to Recruit Top Students to Become Teachers in the New York Times here, and be sure to let us know what you think!

Have a great week.

-The Project Tomorrow team

Written by Lisa Chu, Project Tomorrow Fall Intern

Getting to Know the Project Tomorrow Team

Happy Friday!

We hope you all had a fantastic week! It's Friday which means it's time to meet another one of our fabulous team members. Today we would like to introduce you to Meredith Kohl, our Special Projects Manager!

Meredith Kohl

Special Projects Manager

Project Tomorrow

mkohl@tomorrow.org

949-609-4660 x20 voice

Meredith Kohl serves as Special Projects Manager for Project Tomorrow®.  Her present work focuses on the organization’s Tomorrow’s Teacher Initiative, which stimulates and nurtures the development of a new generation of K-12 teachers in math and science by leveraging Project Tomorrow’s YouthTEACH2Learn and California Future Educators Association (CFEA) programs across the state.  Meredith joined the Project Tomorrow® team in 2012 as the Youth Leadership Summit Coordinator. Her previous experience includes serving as a corps member with Teach for America in the Las Vegas Valley and a Fulbright Fellow to Italy, along with administrative and programmatic nonprofit work at the Center for Teaching Quality in North Carolina. She holds a California elementary teaching certification as well as a master of education in curriculum and instruction, and currently teaches and directs the lower elementary education program at Bridges Reading and Writing Institute in Irvine.

In her free time, Meredith enjoys anything Italian, playing soccer, crafting and design projects, and Saturday morning brunch excursions with her husband—we’re always looking for tasty spots in Orange County. Recommendations welcome and greatly appreciated. ;)

Please be sure to check back next week to meet Marianne Miller, Grants Manager!

Thanks for reading!

-The Project Tomorrow Team