In the spring of 2000, the NYC Teaching Fellows program was launched to address the most severe teacher shortage in New York’s public school system in decades. The Fellowship endeavors to attract mid-career professionals, recent college graduates, and even retirees to teach in the hardest-to-staff schools in the nation’s largest school system. 

In its first year, NYCTF drew 2,100 applications for 325 available positions. Among that first group of Fellows were a Viacom vice-president, one of Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s speechwriters, a “Dateline NBC” producer, and a technology executive from Chicago with both a JD and an MBA. The quality of the applicant pool was so exceptional that the program has been expanded to 2,000 Fellows a year. 

Since 2000, the Teaching Fellows program has not only addressed New York’s chronic teacher shortage, it has been able to focus on recruiting people specifically to teach high-need subject areas—such as science, math, Spanish, special education, and bilingual education—and consistently places large numbers of teachers in the hardest-to-staff schools across the city.

Today, the NYC Teaching Fellows program is the largest alternative certification program in the country and among the most selective. 

• Over 8,800 Fellows are currently teaching in New York City’s public schools. 
• Eighty-nine percent of Fellows begin a second year of teaching.
• Last school year (2007-2008), Fellows comprised of 11% of all teachers in the New York City public school system.   
• Approximately fifteen percent of applicants to the June 2008 program were admitted.

In the ninth year of the program, the Fellowship has begun to see its Fellows transition into leadership positions: 

• 72 Fellows have filled positions as principals, assistant principals, or education administrators

The success of the NYC Teaching Fellows program has been heralded across the country through features in national media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Education Week, CNN, “World News Tonight” on ABC, “Good Morning America,” the "TODAY Show," and PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” In his July 2003 report to Congress, Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge: The Secretary's Second Annual Report on Teacher Quality, former Education Secretary Rod Paige specifically cited the NYC Teaching Fellows program as one of the most promising models for alternative certification nationwide. Now in its ninth year, the NYC Teaching Fellows program continues to exceed all expectations.