For approximately 100 Amgen Fellows, attending the second annual Amgen-Teach For America Mathematics and Science Summit, April 11-13, was more than a chance to visit Stanford University in California during a warm spring weekend. It was an opportunity to discuss with other current Teach For America corps members and alumni, policy makers and industry leaders the ways of strengthening math and science education in the under-resourced urban and rural areas where they teach.
Educational inequity that persists along socio-economic lines is one of the nation’s greatest challenges. For 13 million children growing up in poverty today, disparities in educational outcomes severely limit opportunities in life. In math and science, eighth graders in low-income communities can be two to three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities. Having well-prepared teachers is key to improving lagging science and math programs.
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Amgen Fellows from around the country participated in the Amgen-Teach For America Math and Science Summit at Stanford University. |
In 2006, the Amgen Foundation joined Teach For America as its National Math and Science Partner. The Amgen Foundation pledged $5 million over five years towards the partnership to bring outstanding math and science teachers to our country’s lowest-income communities. Each year, 50 math, science and engineering college graduates are designated Amgen Fellows and receive a signing bonus for joining Teach For America, in addition to support of their attendance at the annual Amgen-Teach For America Mathematics and Science Summit.
The summit weekend opened on Friday evening, April 11, with a special recognition dinner for the Amgen Fellows at the Exploratorium in San Francisco that was attended by leaders from Teach For America and Amgen. On Saturday, the summit began with a keynote address from Dr. Gerald F. Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). The Amgen Foundation partners with the NSTA for the New Science Teacher Academy to help promote quality science teaching, enhance teacher confidence and classroom excellence and improve teacher content knowledge. Wheeler spoke about the national state of science education, the importance of teacher development programs, inspiring young minds to pursue careers in math and science and resources that teachers can access to improve quality teaching.
“Bringing together Teach For America and NSTA can help further advance professional development for science educators to help them be more effective in the classroom and give them the tools they need to inspire the next generation of scientists,” said Jean J. Lim, president of the Amgen Foundation.
The Saturday sessions included panels and conversations on various topics including determining and defining teacher quality in math and science, integrating technology into the classroom, and ways to drive achievement in math and science, among others. Each session featured expert panelists such as best-selling author and consultant Geoffrey Moore; Stanford University professor and renowned futurist Paul Saffo; and 2005 National Teacher of the Year Jason Kamras (Metro D.C. Corps ’96). In addition, representatives from companies like Hewlett Packard and Google and educational organizations including The Education Trust and San Francisco Unified School District participated in the discussions.
“The Amgen Summit is such a great opportunity to step outside of my classroom and connect my day-to-day work to the larger education picture,” said Amgen Fellow Jaime Peterson who teaches in the Bay Area (in Northern California). “It’s at events like this where you witness the greater movement at work, involving everything from policy to business to health.”
For more information about Teach For America, visit http://cms-prod/leave_amgen.jsp?site=http://www.teachforamerica.org/.
To read the press release about the Amgen-Teach For America Math and Science Summit, click here.
To read the press release about Amgen’s support of Teach For America Week, click here.
