NPR meldt hierover onder meer: 'The program to reward
high-performing teachers with salary stipends is part of a
long-term effort by President Barack Obama to encourage education
in high-demand areas that hold the key to future economic growth -
and to close the achievement gap between American students and
their international peers.
Teachers selected for the Master Teacher Corps will be paid an
additional $20,000 a year and must commit to participate multiple
years. The goal is to create a multiplier effect in which expert
educators share their knowledge and skills with other teachers,
improving the quality of education for all students. A report
released in February by the President's Council of Advisers on
Science and Technology found that the U.S. must increase by 34
percent the number of students receiving degrees in science, math
and related fields to keep up with economic demand.
Do much better job
The program will start with 2,500 teachers divided up among 50
different sites, the White House said, but will grow to include
10,000 teachers over the next four years. Obama, in partnership
with a coalition of groups including the Carnegie Corporation of
New York, has set a goal of producing 100,000 additional math and
science teachers over the next 10 years.
"I'm running to make sure that America has the best
education system on earth, from pre-K all the way to
post-graduate," zegt Obama. "And that means hiring new teachers,
especially in math and science."
The administration will make $100 million available immediately
out of an existing fund to incentivize top-performing teachers.
Over the longer term, the White House said it plans to launch the
program with $1 billion included in Obama's budget request for
fiscal year 2013. But the House and Senate both voted down Obama's
budget earlier in the year, making it far from certain that Obama
will be able to get congressional approval to spend $1 billion on
master teachers. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said :"This
initiative has nothing to do with politics. It's absolutely in our
country's best long-term economic interest to do a much better job
in this area."