Foundation Investment Facilitates Training Series to Help Teachers Identify and Address Learning Differences
For Immediate Release
Contact: Becky O'Neill | Teach for America
646.369.9374 | becky.oneill@teachforamerica.org
Stacy Parker-Fisher | Oak Foundation
919.951.0585 | Stacy.parker-fisher@oakfnd.org
DURHAM, N.C., December 21, 2012—Oak Foundation recently announced a $450,000 grant to support Teach For America’s efforts to expand educational opportunity in Eastern North Carolina. The gift will facilitate the design and implementation of a professional-development series to help corps members identify, understand, and address the unique learning requirements of their lowest-performing students.
“Enhancing our teachers’ ability to address the needs of each individual child is critical to our mission of educational excellence for all,” said Robyn Fehrman, executive director for Teach For America in Eastern North Carolina, “The generous support of Oak Foundation will ensure that our teachers have the strategies needed to be as responsive as possible to the unique learning styles in their classrooms.”
The series will familiarize teachers with eight core elements of student learning: attention, memory, complex problem-solving, language, social cognition, neuromotor function, spatial ordering, and sequential ordering. Participating teachers will develop their ability to recognize struggling students, zero in on the specific source of that struggle, and design appropriate interventions.
“Oak Foundation is committed to empowering students with learning differences to succeed in school and beyond,” said Stacy Parker Fisher, head of Oak Foundation Learning Differences Programme. “Our partnership with Teach For America will help us to learn more about what works in the classroom to engage a wide range of learners, as we strive to empower teachers with tailored strategies that will help their students thrive.”
Corps members will attend a series of sessions throughout the school year, and student achievement data will be tracked to assess impact and scalability.
For 22 years, Teach For America has been recruiting, training, and developing top recent college graduates and professionals to teach in public schools in Eastern North Carolina and become lifelong leaders in the pursuit of educational equity.
A growing body of research demonstrates the effectiveness of Teach For America corps members. A recent statewide study, as well as studies in Louisiana and Tennessee, found that corps members have a positive impact on student achievement. The North Carolina study identifies Teach For America as the most effective source of early-career teachers in the state’s public schools, based on student achievement data.
About Teach For America
Teach For America works in partnership with communities to expand educational opportunity for children facing the challenges of poverty. Founded in 1990, Teach For America recruits and develops a diverse corps of outstanding individuals of all academic disciplines to commit two years to teach in high-need schools and become lifelong leaders in the movement to end educational inequity. Today, more than 10,000 corps members are teaching in 46 urban and rural regions across the country, while nearly 28,000 alumni are working across sectors to ensure that all children have access to an excellent education. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
About Oak Foundation
Oak Foundation commits its resources to address issues of global, social, and environmental concern, particularly those that have a major impact on the lives of the disadvantaged. Oak Foundation is a group of philanthropic organizations which, since its establishment in 1998, has given more than 2,400 grants to not-for-profit organizations around the world. The headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and the foundation has a presence in eight other countries: Belize, Bulgaria, Denmark, Ethiopia, India, the U.K., the U.S., and Zimbabwe. The Learning Differences Programme is one of nine programs, and supports students with learning differences to succeed in public schools through research and advocacy programs that help them, their families, educators, and schools understand learners and learning.
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