Increasing the Pool of Qualified Math and Science Teachers
Company/Organization: IBM Corporation
CEO/Board Chair: Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman of the Board & CEO, IBM Corporation
Level of Involvement: National & State
State: California, Georgia, New York & North Carolina
Type of Initiative: Expertise
Target Priority: More Innovation Workers in the Pipeline
“The IBM Transition to Teaching Program is one of the most exciting and hopeful things I have seen come along to help us have more highly qualified math and science teachers...IBM employees are smart, highly motivated and (now) many of them will become terrific full-time teachers with the company's strong support." Former North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt
Overview
IBM, a world leader in technology and innovative solutions, is a company that sets high standards for itself and relies on internal accountability systems that are focused on positive outcomes to ensure it is reaching those standards. The company strives to be a leader in the education community to increase academic achievement for all students by employing innovations to develop talent within the education community. As a Fortune 500 company that relies on human capital and creative thinking, IBM recognizes that it has both a responsibility to give back to its global client base and a responsibility to itself to ensure it will have the highly-skilled employee base it needs to thrive in the knowledge-based economy. Supporting IBM’s current employees and providing them with ongoing support and career guidance is also part of the corporate culture. To that end, in November 2005, IBM launched the Transition to Teaching program to recruit, train and certify math and science teachers from within its workforce. The goal of the program is to address the capacity issues schools face in hiring highly qualified math and science teachers.
Strategies for Success
Transition to Teaching is an innovative program that matches schools’ need for math and science teachers with experienced professionals’ desire to remain in the workforce in a more meaningful way. Recognizing that the baby boomer generation is staying in the workforce longer and pursuing meaningful work after retiring from other careers, IBM created the Transition to Teaching program to support its maturing workforce. During employee focus groups, many older employees expressed a desire to remain in the science and technology field while simultaneously giving back to their communities. This helped contribute to IBM’s decision to develop a program to enable talented employees to work in struggling schools.
To be eligible for the program, employees need management approval and must fulfill general requirements, including 10 years of service with IBM; a bachelor’s degree in math or science or an advanced degree in a related field; and some experience teaching, tutoring or volunteering in a school or other children’s program (most likely through IBM’s extensive volunteer program, On Demand Community). IBM provides participating employees with up to $15,000 for tuition and stipends while they student-teach, as well as online mentoring and other support services offered in conjunction with partner colleges, universities and school districts.
IBM Transition to Teaching program leverages strategic business expertise recommended by Business Toolkit for Better Schools, including,
- Partner with school districts to upgrade – and provide – educator professional development, in, for example, mathematics and science
- Partner with school districts and labor to upgrade career and technical education
- Build coalitions of like-minded corporate and private funders who share similar goals to pool resources and accomplish common priorities
Indicators of Success & Next Steps
In January 2006, IBM began a pilot of Transition to Teaching with a focus in New York and North Carolina, providing 100 employees with the opportunity to be the first participants in this brand new program. As it moves forward, IBM recognizes that in order for a program of this nature to reach its potential scale, other companies will need to get involved in sponsoring similar initiatives and will work on recruiting other companies to adopt this approach. And they have: in June 2007 California announced the expansion of Transition to Teaching to the state, and several major corporations have joined IBM in recruiting future math and science teachers from among their employees to contribute to California’s EnCorps initiative. IBM also has forged partnerships with colleges of education and national teacher education organizations to ensure the Transition to Teaching program incorporates and supports the field’s best practices in teacher preparation. Because only some members of the first cohort of teachers have entered the classroom, however, it is too early to evaluate the impact of the program.
The company has a strong track record of carefully evaluating its extensive education philanthropic portfolio, including IBM’s well-known and long-established Reinventing Education program. Through Reinventing Education, IBM develops state, district, or school level reform plans, based on the needs of each education system, and helps to develop new uses of technology to help implement and sustain those reform plans. In 2004, an IBM-commissioned report, which followed the Reinventing Education program over seven years, found that the grants and reform plans were having a positive impact on classroom practice and student achievement.
Related Content
Web site
Materials for the Public
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Transitioning in Texas: Two Former IBMers Take to the Classroom, IBM Press Release, August 2007
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California's EnCorps Program
Evaluation
Updated: June 2008
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