Lt. Governor Brown Highlights O'Malley/Brown Commitment to Public Education with Classroom Visit During Teach for America Week 2008
Focuses on the Power of Early Childhood Education in Closing the Achievement Gap
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md., April 18, 2008—Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown participated in Teach For America Week 2008 today, highlighting Maryland’s education reform efforts and the importance of early childhood education during a visit to Matthew Henson Elementary School in Landover. Lt. Gov. Brown visited 2007 Metro D.C. corps member Meg Jensen’s prekindergarten classroom. During his lesson, he read aloud from a book in the class’s library and answered students’ questions.
“The youngsters I met today serve as yet another reminder to how important it is to provide our students with the highest quality education as early as possible,” said Lt. Governor Brown. “Teach For America has continued to play an important part in our combined efforts to improve public education in all communities and for all students, especially those with the greatest needs.”
During a brief press conference after his lesson, Lt. Gov. Brown highlighted the O’Malley/Brown Administration’s efforts to improve public education in Maryland, including the historic level of funding for public K-12 education and the Administration’s $733 million investment in school construction since taking office in January 2007. In addition, Brown lauded Maryland’s efforts to improve early childhood education access and quality. Since 2002, Maryland has seen the percentages of students entering kindergarten “fully prepared to learn” increase, including a 34 point increase among low-income students.
Lt. Gov. Brown was joined at the press conference by Prince George’s County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John Deasy, Matthew Henson Elementary School Principal Clara B. Yancey, Teach For America - Metro D.C. Executive Director Amy Black, and Teach For America - Baltimore Executive Director Omari Todd.
“By participating in Teach For America Week, Lieutenant Governor Brown and other exceptional leaders are demonstrating that the educational inequity that persists in our country demands everyone’s attention,” said Amy Black. “Through the collective efforts of our corps members and alumni in Washington and Maryland, working alongside school colleagues and communities, we are building the movement to ensure that all of our children have the educational opportunities they deserve.”
The annual Teach For America Week brings government officials, executives, educators, authors, athletes, and other prominent individuals to their local high-need schools as guest teachers, inspiring students and raising awareness of educational inequity in our nation. This year’s event, held April 14-18, drew more than 150 leaders from every professional sector to the classrooms of Teach For America corps members from the Bronx to the Mississippi Delta to South Central Los Angeles.
Teach For America is the national corps of top college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity for all children. The organization launched an early childhood education initiative in 2006 to bring increasing numbers of outstanding pre-K teachers to our country’s lowest-income communities. Currently 112 Teach For America corps members are leading pre-K classrooms in select regions and reaching over 1,900 students, including students in Prince George’s County. Through Teach For America’s continued efforts to grow this initiative, the number of total corps members teaching in pre-K classrooms will quadruple in the next few years, from 112 in 2007 to 561 in 2010, reaching more than 9,500 students in their first experiences with school.
Since expanding to Metro D.C. and Baltimore in 1992, Teach For America has placed more than 2,100 talented and dedicated young teachers to serve some 170,000 students in underserved area schools. Today, some 400 corps members are directly impacting the lives of about 33,000 students in low-income communities in Metro D.C. and Baltimore. The two regions are also home to nearly 1,000 Teach For America alumni, a force of leaders in education and every other sector committed to making the fundamental changes necessary to ensure that all children have the chance to fulfill their potential.
This year’s Teach For America Week participants included First Lady Laura Bush, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, Congressman John Sarbanes, Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Andres Alonso, author Jeffrey Toobin, CBS President and CEO Les Moonves, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall, and Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan. Additional guest teachers included executives from GE, JPMorgan, Motorola, Teach For America national founding corporate sponsor Wachovia Corporation, and Teach For America national corporate sponsors Amgen, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs.
About Teach For America
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. This year, more than 5,000 corps members are teaching in over 1,000 schools in 26 regions across the country, and more than 12,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org.