Summer Fellowships: Pursuing Self-Directed, Issues-Oriented Research
The Summer Fellowship Program at Mathematica welcomes doctoral students to spend 12 weeks at one of Mathematica’s office locations. Fellows will work on their own independent research project (typically their dissertation), which will intersect with one or more of Mathematica’s focus areas.
Fellows will be mentored by senior staff, learn about Mathematica and its work, and have the opportunity to shadow Mathematica research projects and proposals. At the conclusion of the fellowship, fellows will present a seminar on their research project. Each fellow will receive a stipend of $10,000, plus $500 in project-related expenses. View some of the topics covered by prior visiting summer fellows.
Applications should be submitted to the Human Resources department by February 2021.
Illinois Virtual Instructional Coach and Building Mentor Program
Background
The State of Illinois estimates that at least 4,000 new K-12 teachers will be hired to fill vacancies for the 2020-21 school year. Many of these teachers did not have the chance to complete their clinical training because of COVID-19. However, teacher candidates who were eligible for this exemption already underwent extensive coursework, pre-clinical fieldwork experiences, and a licensure content test.
These new teachers and others who are new to the profession will be expected to help students’ recover from learning loss and the social-emotional toll of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic while mastering digital teaching and learning technologies. Illinois’ students experienced at least one-quarter of remote learning last school year;
and as of September 14, 2020, nearly two-thirds of Illinois’ students are beginning the new school year remotely. Teachers also must be prepared for intermittent transitions between remote and in-person instruction as the school year progresses. In both settings, teachers will be expected to provide much needed social-emotional support and manage challenging circumstances for their students. New teachers need more support than ever before.
IEA and IFT Offer Comprehensive Professional Support
To support beginning teachers in these challenging circumstances, the Illinois State Board of Education engaged the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers to design a comprehensive program that will offer every participating district’s new teachers wraparound professional support including:
• Virtual instructional coach trained to provide support to beginning teachers regarding effective practices for online instruction, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed practices;
• Trained and certified building mentor with the sole responsibility to make the teacher feel welcomed, supported and connected in their new school;
• Access to robust virtual coaching platform with a comprehensive online library of instructional resources, including effective-practice videos, and software tools that help teachers analyze examples of each other’s teaching and provide feedback and support to one another; and
• Support and feedback through one-on-one and small group virtual coaching sessions organized around Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching Clusters.
ISBE partnered with IEA and IFT through a $6.5 million grant, funded by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
For more information, email:
Illinois Education Association contact: IEA_coachingandmentoring@ieanea.org
Illinois Federation of Teachers contact: IFTcoachingandmentoring@ift-aft.org
