UMass Boston

Program Overview

Thank you for your interest in the Wipro Science Education Fellowship (SEF)! We hope that you will consider applying for this regional opportunity in order to grow professionally as a classroom teacher and as an instructional leader during your two-year term as a Wipro Science Education Fellow. The Wipro SEF program is a partnership between UMass Boston, Boston Public Schools, Braintree Public Schools, Cambridge Public Schools, Malden Public Schools, and Pembroke Public Schools. We also have a partnership with Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey which runs a Wipro SEF program with five partner public school districts in New Jersey: Clifton, Kearny, Montclair, Orange, and Paramus. The hope is to continue to expand the program, but at this time, the fellowship is only offered to teachers within these districts.

The Wipro SEF program is designed to foster teaching and leadership skills in those who have a minimum of three years of teaching experience by the end of the current school year and are committed to staying in the classroom within their school district for the next two years. Applicants do not need to have prior leadership experience. While many teachers may find these skills to be helpful for other avenues of leadership in the district, this program is not designed to facilitate the transition of a classroom teacher to becoming a school-based or district-based leader, such as a principal or superintendent. Up to twenty teachers from grades K-12 in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth/environmental science will be selected to be a fellow for the September 1, 2014-August 31, 2016 term.

Wipro SEF: Internationally Funded, Locally Practiced
The Wipro Science Education Fellowship is a program sponsored by Wipro (www.wipro.com) and based upon the success of the Boston Science Partnership’s Science Education Fellowship, which was supported through the National Science Foundation from 2009 to 2012. The fellowship is a two-year-long program for experienced teachers which uses a model of teacher support and development to increase the quality of teaching and leadership in science throughout several districts. This model includes a comprehensive set of activities designed to improve teacher practice, focusing on the outcome of increased achievement in science for all students.

The goals of the program are:

• To create and support a corps of teachers and leaders
• To institute a culture of active and reflective instruction
• To improve teacher quality through vertical alignment within content and horizontal alignment within grade bands, meeting in small groups, and professional development in order to increase student achievement

These goals will be met by focusing the professional development in three specific areas:

1. Thinking about Teaching: Teachers will be involved in structured inquiry into their own teaching and growth using tools developed through educational research. As a cohort they will meet regularly to discuss core topics of teaching and learning using current videotapes of their teaching. Fellows will be asked to tape specific lessons in order to see one another teaching a similar concept across grade levels and content areas. Monthly meetings will support the work Fellows are doing in their Collaborative Coaching and Learning of Science (CCLS) groups and on their individual plans.
2. Leadership to Peers: Fellows will be asked to identify opportunities for themselves to take a leadership role within the district or with their peers. To facilitate this, Fellows will work with experts in adult learning and leadership in order to develop the skills that will allow them to help other teachers to become leaders, to be able to motivate other teachers, and to bring other teachers along the professional continuum.
3. Individual Growth Opportunities: Each teacher has areas of their professional lives that they hope to grow to meet a need they see in themselves or their students. Each Fellow will identify and pursue opportunities for growth based on their own professional growth plans. These might include working with a university professor, becoming a mentor to other teachers, or improving presentation skills.

Fellowship Program Description

The Wipro Science Education Fellowship year is a two-year program for science teachers who are dedicated to learning and growing as a teacher and as a leader. The Fellowship has a core set of work that all fellows must participate in during each year.

The Wipro Science Education Fellowship Program (250 hours)

Collaborative Work

• Develop relationships with teachers across content areas and levels
• Videotape his/her own classroom instruction
• Participate in the SEF adapted CCLS model
• Observe other teachers’ lessons and give feedback; receive peer feedback on lessons
• Anchor feedback and reflections in research
• Look at teaching and learning across content areas and levels

Individual Work

• Develop and carry out an individualized growth plan that has a clear vision and identifiable benchmarks
• Meet regularly with adviser
• Reflect weekly
• Complete monthly assignments for each Fellows’ meeting
• Videotape his/her own classroom instruction
• Present findings
• Lead and videotape a professional development opportunity

During Year 1, fellows will meet monthly as a group and engage in deep, meaningful professional development in the areas of instruction, reflective practice, adult learning, and leadership. These meetings are used to develop skills that will benefit all fellows. The other major part of collaborative work is done in Collaborative Coaching and Learning of Science (CCLS) groups, which has grown out of the work of the Boston Science Partnership. These small professional learning communities determine their own schedules, courses of study, and the lessons they will all be taping and observing. These video observations, research, and student work will anchor the teams’ conversations in teaching and learning across science content areas and levels.

At the end of Year 1, fellows will design an individualized growth plan. This plan should consist of a clear vision that will help lead them to where they would like to be at the end of Year 2, and it needs to consist of work that they feel like he or she would not have an opportunity to do otherwise. The plan should focus on ways to improve their own instruction and leadership skills. Accordingly, this work should tie into the type of professional development the fellow would like to either develop or lead for other science teachers. Fellows will work with an adviser who will help them to develop their own professional growth plan and will meet with their headmaster/principal to determine how to be a leader while still being in the classroom. Each fellow will have a small fund to purchase support materials or attend professional development. Fellows will also meet in district groups with their science coordinator to talk about how their work will go on to support district initiatives.

Although the Fellowship was not designed with the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation in mind, you may use any of your work as evidence that you are meeting professional standards. For example, you may want to use the products or outcomes from your individual growth plan as evidence of Indicators IV-A, B, and C on the Standards and Indicators of Effective Teaching Practice (http://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/model/) --or not. It is important to reiterate that the application, videos, portfolio, forms, feedback and content in regards to the Wipro Science Education Fellowship are not part of the Educator Evaluation. All materials are kept under the property of University of Massachusetts Boston, and not with any district office. The program is designed for growth and reflection; the work that you do will never be used by an evaluator for the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation.

Eligibility
All teachers of science in grades K-12 who have taught science for at least three years by the end of the current school year and have been employed by their current district for at least two years are invited to apply; teachers must hold a valid license to teach a science subject; this can be an elementary license at the elementary level. Teachers should be able to describe past professional leadership experiences and must be able to demonstrate how they have been successful in the classroom. Teachers also must have the support of their school administrator to apply due to the extra commitments you will have during the school year. Furthermore, teachers who become fellows are committing to remain in the classroom for the entire term of their Fellowship. Please note that Wipro SEF is an intensive program that will require an average of 125 hours of your time each year. Applicants should carefully consider their other teaching and professional obligations before applying.

Compensation

Fellows who successfully complete their Fellowship term will receive a $10,000 stipend.  The stipend will be paid in installments throughout the two years on condition all Fellowship requirements have been met.

Contact Information

For more information, please contact Roxane Johnson De Lear, Associate Director, COSMIC, via phone at 617.287.5632 or via email at roxane.johnsondelear@umb.edu.