Teachers and instructional specialists from across the country were invited to submit essays through an open application process to serve as Teaching Ambassador Fellowship with the U.S. Department of Education. Ambassadors were chosen based on a demonstrated record of leadership, impact on student achievement, and insight into education policy from their school and classroom experience.

The program offers two year-long tracks: the Washington Fellowship which is a full-time appointment based at the Department’s Headquarter and the Classroom Fellowship in which participants on a part-time consultancy basis for the Department, in addition to their regular school hours.

In both settings, Fellows spend a year gaining greater knowledge of the content of key federal programs and policies in addition to the context and process by which they are designed and implemented. Fellows are asked to share their expertise with federal staff members, to provide outreach and communication about federal initiatives to other educators on behalf of the Department, and to facilitate the involvement in and understanding of teachers in developing and implementing these efforts at the federal, state and local levels, to improve the likelihood of their success.

President Obama has set a goal that every child in America be provided a complete and competitive education, from cradle to career. In 2009-2010, the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship will focus on the four key areas of reform serving as a foundation for the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiatives and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in order to meet this goal:

• Creating data systems that follow the progress of students from pre-K through college and which link student results back to teachers and in turn colleges of education;

• Adopting internationally-benchmarked standards and higher quality assessments that measure whether students are mastering complex materials and can apply their knowledge in ways that are ready for college and careers;

• Committing the required attention, resources and ingenuity to turning around our lowest performing schools; and

• Investing in the quality of the education workforce – teachers, principals and education support professionals – and rethinking how these educators are prepared, assigned and rewarded.

Over the year, Teaching Fellows will bring their expertise to these four areas and assist the Department in sharing, refining and implementing related initiatives so that together we can ensure that every child gets the very best education possible.