News & Notes: Harvard launches teaching fellows program

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education has launched Harvard Teaching Fellows, a program intended to expose recently graduated students to a new model of teaching, the Harvard Crimson reported on Friday.

Along with institutions like Yale, Brown, Stanford and the University of Texas, Harvard is seeking to provide prospective educators with an alternative to Teach for America.

Teach for America was founded by Wendy Kopp '89 as part of her senior thesis.

Harvard’s program hopes to provide more robust support for its teachers during and after deployment, an area critics have complained is lacking in TFA’s program.

For example, while TFA has a six-week intensive training session for student teachers that has been criticized as overwhelming, HTF plans to begin preparing its students from the spring semester of their senior year and provide additional teacher preparation in the summer prior to deployment.

Harvard president Drew Faust said that by launching the program Harvard could underscore the value of a teaching career while also giving excellent preparation for students.