Wipro Ltd., a global information technology, consulting and business 
process services company along with partner universities, University of Massachusetts Boston, Mercy College and Montclair State University today announced the induction of 61 school teachers into the Wipro Science Education Fellowship (SEF) program in the United States. This is the second cohort of teachers who are being inducted into the program.
The Wipro Science Education Fellowship is a two-year science teacher-leadership program which aims to address the needs of improving STEM teaching and learning. The aim of the program is to support teachers to become local leaders and to serve the needs and vision of the school district in which they teach in grades K-12.
The program began in 2012 when Wipro Ltd. committed $5.1 million over seven-years, to train three (3) cohorts of 180 school teachers (in total), fostering leadership and teaching excellence in science education. The program is administered through UMass Boston’s Center of Science and Mathematics in Context (COSMIC). In partnership with COSMIC, the Wipro SEF program is also being implemented by UMass Boston in Boston, Mercy College in New York and Montclair State University in New Jersey. The program covers five school districts in the Greater Boston area (led by UMass Boston), five school districts in Northern New Jersey (led by Montclair State University) and five school districts in the NY metropolitan area (led by Mercy College).
Using a model of teacher support and development to increase the capacity of teacher-leadership, the program entails a comprehensive set of activities designed to:
- Create and support a corps of teacher- leaders
- Institute a culture of active and reflective instruction
- Improve teacher quality through vertical articulation of curriculum and professional development in order to increase student achievement
During their fellowship, teachers receive a stipend of $10,000 over two years that require a total of 250 hours of work. As part of the curriculum, 125 hours will be spent in collaborative sessions as cohorts of fellows and the remaining 125 hours will involve guided and mentored learning. In the fall of the first year, the teachers work in four K-12 teams (biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science) on the vertical articulation of curriculum. In the spring of the first year, the teachers work in horizontal groups (elementary group, middle school group and high school group.)
“We are proud of these remarkable teachers for joining this program and becoming leaders in their community,” said TK Kurien, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board, Wipro Limited. “Our larger vision, a goal shared across the U.S., is that we must invest in young people and prepare our future leaders for careers in the field of science. And this program is a step towards achieving that goal.”
“This program is designed to equip teachers with the tools they need to be agents of change and give students the right orientation for them to be successful in the field of science,” said Anurag Behar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Wipro Limited. “These efforts also align with our vision of making impactful strides toward higher quality education.”
“Through the generosity and vision of Wipro, these Fellows can become teacher leaders and support sustainable change in science education in their school systems while remaining in the classroom,” said Arthur Eisenkraft, Distinguished Professor of Science Education, Professor of Physics and Director of COSMIC at UMass Boston.
Over the lifetime of the program, 180 Fellows and tens of thousands of students will be positively impacted in 15 school districts in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
