Through the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows, The New Teacher Project has developed a model solution to the challenge of filling teacher vacancies that appear mid-way through the school year.

Every year, teacher resignations, sabbaticals, medical leaves, and changing student enrollment levels leave urban schools with dozens of openings to fill in the middle of the school year. In cities like Philadelphia, such vacancies too often become a revolving door for unqualified teachers, to the detriment of students. In 2003, with funding from the Wachovia Foundation, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) radically adapted its proven alternate route to certification program model to create the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows (PTF), an innovative “mid-year” program training new teachers to fill chronic vacancies in the School District of Philadelphia’s high-need schools.

• In its first year, PTF recruited and selected a cohort of approximately 50 new teachers, all of whom were eligible to teach high-need subject areas such as math, science and special education. By beginning their teaching careers in January rather than September, these mid-year hires helped the district fill critical vacancies. The success of the first PTF cohort encouraged the district to invest further in the program, while the Wachovia Foundation also extended its commitment, allowing PTF to more than double in size and expand to recruit a fall cohort of approximately 100 teachers. Among the group was Micah Reyes, a Philadelphia native who took a position teaching physics and physical science at Samuel S. Fels High School. “Sometimes these children just need someone to believe in them enough so that they can believe in themselves,” he said.

Since its launch, the impact of the Philadelphia Teaching Fellows program has been pronounced. In 2006, for the first time in years, the district filled all of its special education vacancies. In 2007, Teaching Fellows were responsible for 10 percent of the district’s teacher hires. All of the 113 Fellows who began teaching in 2007 were placed in Title I schools, serving high concentrations of students from low-income backgrounds.

• Not only have 350 teachers joined classrooms in Philadelphia, but the program has brought an exceptionally impressive group to the city. Just one in 20 applicants to the 2007 mid-year program went on to become a Fellow. Among that cohort, the average GPA was 3.36, 40 percent were people of color, and more than a third (36 percent) filled special education positions. The summer 2007 cohort exhibited similarly strong qualifications: The acceptance rate was 11.81 percent, the average GPA was 3.2, and 43 percent were people of color. A full 100 percent of Fellows entering the classroom in the fall of 2007 were in high-need subjects.

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  The Philadelphia Teaching Fellows continues to be an invaluable pipeline for Philadelphia’s schools, drawing promising new teachers who follow Ben Franklin’s advice that “well done is better than well said.” The program is now a model for addressing chronic staffing shortages nationwide.

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