Math for America D.C. (MfA DC) Deepens Partnership with National Program
Math for America DC (MfA DC) has two programs, the Teaching Fellowship, which ran from 2009-2019, and the Master Teacher Fellowship, which began in 2011 and continues. The last Teaching Fellows graduated in 2019. In all, 40 fellows finished the program. This past year, eight Washington, D.C., teachers participated in the mathematics Master Teachers Program. This five-year program attracts excellent secondary public-school mathematics teachers to grow a core group of outstanding math teachers who will remain in teaching. The program includes financial support, plus leadership and professional development. Over its twelve years, MfA DC teachers have reached about 44,000 D.C. students in public schools.
MfA Master Teacher Will Stafford has earned many awards. Most recently, he was awarded the 2019-2020 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). It is the nation’s highest honor for exceptional teachers of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and/or computer science bestowed by the U.S. government.
The pandemic prohibited the recruitment for new master teachers. However, the professional development program, led by Bill Day, a former MfA DC master teacher and the 2014 D.C. Teacher of the Year, with MfA DC Director Bianca Abrams, forged a deeper relationship with the national Math for America program in New York, where MfA was founded in 2004 to improve U.S. math and science education by mathematician and philanthropist Jim Simons.
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A long-term goal of MfA DC has been to broaden the collaboration with the New York’s professional development network platform. D.C. Master Teachers have been participating virtually in the New York program’s Wednesday Webinar Series to forge a broader teaching community. It is designed to keep teachers in touch with one another and to find new ways to think critically about their profession during the pandemic.
D.C. Master Teachers are leaders in their fields and have received numerous awards. This summer Master Teacher Will Stafford was awarded the 2019-2020 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), the nation’s highest honor for exceptional teachers of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and/or computer science bestowed by the U.S. government. Presidential awardees receive a certificate signed by the President; recognition events; additional professional development opportunities; and a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation. Annually, up to 108 teachers are chosen.
Stafford, a MfA DC Master Teacher since 2012, teaches at a D.C. public charter school. He is National Board Certified, a speaker at regional and national conferences, a founder and leader of DC Math Ignites, and a leading staff of professional development at the Institute for Advanced Study’s Park City Mathematics Institute funded by the NSF and Simmons Foundation.
Bill Day, a former MfA DC master teacher and the 2014 D.C. Teacher of the Year (left) directs the MfA DC professional development program. He is shown in a pre-pandemic professional development workshop. Image courtesy Carnegie Institution for Science
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Bianca Abrams has directed the Math for America DC program since its founding in 2008. Image courtesy MfA