Campus & Community

GSE helps midcareer transitions to teaching

2 min read

With $600,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Graduate School of Education (GSE) and the Boston Public Schools (BPS), in collaboration with the Boston Plan for Excellence, will provide $14,000 stipends for qualified midcareer professionals who would like to transition to teaching careers. The support will ensure candidates in GSE’s MidCareer Math and Science Program a stipend of $4,000 per year for each of the two years in the program plus $10,000 for their role as BPS interns in the first year. Candidates who satisfy Boston Public School requirements will be guaranteed teaching positions immediately after graduation. The teachers will also be part of an ongoing support network and professional education network.

“The U.S. Department of Education’s generous grant will allow the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Boston Public Schools to forge a cutting-edge relationship targeted on improving math and science education in our schools,” says Katherine K. Merseth, director of GSE’s Teacher Education Programs.

The new partnership, called the Transition to Teaching Math and Science (T2MS), is designed to address the shortage of qualified math and science teachers in Boston’s middle and high schools. Stressing the balance between theory and practice, the program focuses on how participants can translate their subject-matter knowledge and expertise into curriculum that will best serve the diversity and needs of Boston’s adolescent youth.

Participants in T2MS apply and enroll in the Teacher Education Program’s MidCareer Math and Science Program at GSE. Recognizing that many midcareer professionals need to be employed while making a career change to teaching, T2MS provides its first-year participants with a $4,000 stipend and $10,000 for their role as BPS interns. Upon successful completion of their first year, T2MS students earn the equivalent of the initial teaching certification from the commonwealth of Massachusetts in at least one science or math subject area at the middle or high school level and a master’s of education degree from the Graduate School of Education.

Participants who qualify to continue into the second year of T2MS are hired as full-time, paid teachers in the Boston Public Schools (at a starting salary of $42,000) and receive ongoing support from GSE as well as an additional $4,000 stipend for their work in the program.