Education

The Problem

The Foundation is focused on improving the communities of the MetroWest. A key factor in the health and success of these communities is a thriving economic base of healthy businesses. These businesses are dependent upon a skilled workforce, requiring high quality public education that prepares students to be valuable and innovative employees.

In MetroWest communities and beyond, our economy is increasingly dependent on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-related industries and occupations. Yet, recent years have seen relatively flat student performance in STEM, a persistent achievement gap, high remediation rates, and too few students majoring in STEM at the college level to meet the economy’s needs.

The Foundation for MetroWest seeks to improve student performance in STEM through the development of expert teachers. A growing body of research confirms that achievement is more heavily influenced by the quality of that student’s teacher than by race, class, prior academic record, or the school itself. Research also indicates that the gap in achievement widens each year between students with the most and least effective teachers. So a focus on developing expert teachers holds the promise of producing the most significant gains in student achievement for generations of students.

The Fund

The current goal of the MetroWest Fund for Education is to stimulate innovations and professional development for MetroWest public school teachers that will increase student engagement and achievement in STEM topics. It will do this by funding well-planned and comprehensive professional development in content and/or pedagogy. An example might be development of a mathematics learning community to improve the teaching of fractions in grade 3-8, or engagement of elementary teachers in a collaborative project to increase the integration of math and science lessons.

The Education Fund will also support teacher-proposed classroom innovations that promise to increase student interest and understanding in STEM. An example could include development of a school nature trail and accompanying curriculum or launching a sustainable community effort to bring visiting scientists from the community into the classroom on a regular basis.

Get Involved

To learn how you or your company can get involved with the MetroWest Fund for Education, please contact Judy Salerno at (508) 647 – 2260 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).