The recent round of STEM reimbursements (Year 6) broke all records, allowing schools across the state to invest in STEM education unlike never before. In total, $58 million – $18 million more than last round – was just awarded to over 400 different schools, with Teach NYS member schools alone collecting about $14 million.
This $14 million represents a 28% increase in member schools’ awards compared to the last year as well as nearly one quarter of all funds awarded this round. For the first time ever, a Jewish school – one of our member schools – was awarded over $1 million dollars. This million-dollar milestone is a gamechanger for the school, allowing it to address the teacher crisis and enhance quality of education in a major way.
Our members schools, which received an average of $185,000 each this week, are utilizing this funding in a myriad of ways. Many schools are using it to address the teacher crisis through retention and recruitment, offering more competitive salaries. Others, such as Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, are using the funding to recruit expert STEM teachers to provide top quality education. Some schools, such as Shulamith of Long Island and Yeshiva of South Shore, have used the money to inspire students by funding internal STEM and Shark Tank competitions as well as pay for students to participate in national STEM competitions, respectively. One school, Ohavei Torah of Riverdale, is using the money to not only pay the salaries of its STEM teachers, but to offset other costs, allowing them to offer larger tuition scholarships to students!
In total, over the first six years’ worth of reimbursements, our member schools alone have collected over $45 million dollars, which is helping transform the landscape (and cost) of STEM education in our community. To view a full list of Year 6 reimbursements, broken down by school, click here.
Now that Year 6 applications have been awarded, NYSED is able to begin reviewing Year 7 applications, which were due this past August. Year 8 applications, for this current school year, are due this coming August. We’re already working with many member schools on their applications. Be in touch if you’d like to start early, and if you’re a non-member school and would like us to review and assist you through every step in the process, please reach out and we’ll bring your school on board as a member.
Last, if you’d like more of your STEM teachers to become reimbursable through this STEM program, or if you’d like to be able to offer reduced-cost Masters in Education as a recruitment tool for teachers (and have incoming teachers become eligible for reimbursement), then our member-only partnerships with universities may be perfect for you. You can learn more here or by reaching out to Adam Katz at katza@teachcoalition.org.