Improving the Quality of Science and Math Teaching and the Quality of Hands-On Experiences for Students
Company/Organization: Amgen Foundation
CEO/Board Chair: Kevin Sharer, Chairman of the Board, CEO & President of Amgen; Jean Lim, President of Amgen Foundation
Level of Involvement: National
Type of Initiative: Philanthropy
Target Education Priority: More Innovation Workers in the Pipeline
"At Amgen, we believe we have an important responsibility to inspire and prepare the next generation of scientists." Jean Lim, president of Amgen Foundation
Overview
Amgen, a leading human therapeutics company in the biotechnology industry, has a very active corporate philanthropy arm, the Amgen Foundation. One of the Amgen Foundation's major goals is to increase both the access to and quality of science education for all students in order to ensure the ongoing pipeline of qualified and prepared scientists in this country. The Foundation makes grants and develops partnerships to improve the quality of science teaching, attract bright new minds to the field and support hands-on science experiences for K-12 and university students.
Strategies for Success
In thinking strategically about investing in initiatives to help achieve these goals, the Foundation always considers three questions: Can this be taken to scale? Is it replicable? And is it sustainable?
The Amgen Foundation recently launched a large-scale, long-term philanthropic effort that seeks to improve upon existing programs and institutions. In summer 2006, the Amgen Foundation became the National Math and Science Partner for Teach For America, a national organization that recruits and trains college graduates from America's best colleges to teach for two years in high-need, low-income urban and rural school districts. The Foundation will sponsor 50 Amgen Fellows each year, through a five-year, $5 million grant to Teach For America to recruit and support teachers with strong academic backgrounds in math and science. Amgen also will host the Amgen/Teach For America Math & Science Summit, an annual gathering of Amgen Fellows, Teach For America alumni, policymakers and industry leaders, to address ways of strengthening math and science instruction in high-need schools.
While the partnership with Teach For America addresses one part of Amgen's education mission - improving the quality of science teaching - in October 2006, the Amgen Foundation launched another grant program to address another priority - supporting hands-on research opportunities to excite students about science education. Amgen has partnered with ten universities to provide hundreds of undergraduate students, or "Amgen Scholars," with the opportunity to participate in a hands-on science research program.
Through an eight-year, $25 million grant program, Amgen is providing funds for the universities to recruit students from across the nation to participate in summer programs that offer students a fully-funded, hands-on research experience under some of the country's top academic scientists. The 250 undergraduates who participate each summer will also take part in a mid-summer symposium where they will hear firsthand from leading scientists working in industry and academia, and have the chance to network with other Amgen Scholars from across the nation. The ultimate goal is to encourage more students to pursue advanced training and careers in scientific fields. The first cohort of undergraduates will participate in summer 2007, and the Amgen Scholars Program promises to provide a unique opportunity to reach hundreds of budding scientists across the nation.
The Amgen Foundation incorporates several philanthropic strategies recommended by Business Toolkit for Better Schools in its grants and partnerships:
- Make the case that the global economy demands higher expectations, a renewed commitment to math and science investments and data-driven decision making
- Develop a clear and specific "theory of change" that sets priorities for corporate giving efforts in education
- Align all grants and sponsorships with this theory of change
- Be persistent and stick with education grantmaking for the long haul, as the most important problems in education are often the most intractable
- Fund evaluations in order to fine-tune corporate giving programs and to measure the company's success in achieving the goals and metrics in the theory of change
Indicators of Success
Both of these grant programs have been launched too recently to evaluate their success. However, Teach For America is committed to measuring the significant gains made by the students of Amgen Fellows, as well as all students taught by Teach For America corps members. Nationwide, Teach For America teachers are making a difference with students; a study by the independent research firm Mathematica in 2004 found that students in Teach For America classrooms outscored their schoolmates on math tests and matched their average performance on reading tests. Teach For America teachers not only demonstrated more success at raising achievement scores than other novice teachers, but they also had more success than teachers with an average of six years of classroom experience.
The Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at the Indiana University School of Education is on board as the national evaluator of the Amgen Scholars Program; the evaluation will allow the Foundation to share best practices based on data, as well as track participating students over time to measure the long-term impact of the program.
Next Steps
Moving forward, the Amgen Foundation will continue to improve upon its existing long-term investments in science and math education by utilizing and expanding upon ongoing evaluations; engage a larger group of stakeholders on the future of math and science education at the Amgen/Teach For America Math & Science Summit; and continue to build on its goal to foster the next generation of scientists and innovators.
Related Content
Web site
Evaluation
Materials for the Public
Updated: June 2007
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