AOL Time Warner Foundation Announces $1 Million Grant For NYC Teacher Retention.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 23, 2002

The AOL Time Warner Foundation today announced a two-year, $1 million grant to New York University for the New Educator Support Team (NEST), a program to help combat high teacher turnover rates and improve education in New York City schools.

Funded through the AOL Time Warner Foundation's 21st Century Literacy Initiative, the grant brings the company's total support for the program to $3.5 million.

NEST is a partnership between the AOL Time Warner Foundation, the NYC Department of Education, and the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. It matches new teachers with experienced teacher mentors and provides other support to help handle the difficult classroom issues that contribute to 50% of new teachers leaving the profession in the first 3-5 years.

New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said, "NEST is a strong example of how the public and private sectors can work together to support our teachers and strengthen our schools. New teachers need a place to turn when they face the day-to-day challenges in the classroom, and NEST is creating a model for building that support system. I am very happy that the AOL Time Warner Foundation is joining our effort to give New York City kids great schools and the best educational opportunities in the nation."

"New teachers are critical to helping kids learn the skills they need to succeed in this information century," said Kathy Bushkin, President of the AOL Time Warner Foundation and Senior Vice President, AOL Time Warner. "The AOL Time Warner Foundation helped create NEST to find new ways to help keep new teachers motivated, engaged and trained. We hope to develop new models to tackle the difficult challenges that new teachers face - so they stay in the classroom."

NEST is an in-school initiative working to combat high teacher turnover through a number of professional development strategies, including:

-- matching new teachers with experienced teacher mentors;

-- holding workshops on a wide range of real-life classroom situations;

-- providing classroom observation and feedback to new teachers;

-- developing collaborative lesson and curriculum planning; and

-- organizing support groups of new and experienced teachers to share problems and develop solutions.

In addition, NEST provides an experienced Department of Education teacher in the schools who acts as a facilitator to implement and build the program. Facilitators work directly within the school, enrolling teachers in the NEST program and helping oversee its development. The facilitator remains in the school until the NEST program becomes self-sustaining, thereafter making once-a-week visits while experienced "coach teachers" organize and administer NEST as an ongoing initiative in the school.

Previous support of the program by AOL Time Warner and the AOL Time Warner Foundation over the last three years has brought the initiative to nine New York City elementary, middle and high schools in four boroughs. Since its inception, over 1,200 teachers have participated in the program.

With the new grant, NEST will be expanded to 11 schools. In addition, the grant will support ongoing evaluation of the program and development of models for bringing the successful components of NEST to other schools in New York and around the country.

A study by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future shows that turnover, not a shortage of new teachers, is a leading cause of the teacher gap. For example, in 1999, the study shows that schools around the nation hired 232,000 first-time teachers, but in turn, the schools lost more than 287,000 teachers who left the profession.

Mark Alter of NYU's Steinhardt School of Education said, "We're honored to have the support of the AOL Time Warner Foundation in continuing to develop and evaluate this innovative school-based model for keeping good teachers in the classroom. We see NEST as a way to strengthen teaching and learning in schools, and we're excited at the potential of NEST as a model for teachers, administrators and parents to work together in building stronger schools throughout New York."

In addition to reducing teacher turnover and helping build better educational opportunities for young people, NEST works to meet three priorities, including: 1) creating an exciting learning environment for all students, 2) conducting a comprehensive evaluation on the impact of its initiatives, and 3) recommending effective methods for bringing the NEST model to more schools.

    NEST Schools 2002-03

    Nine continuing schools

    --  Brooklyn:
   1. PS 314
   2. Ditmas Junior High School
   3. Acorn Community High School

    --  Queens:
   4. PS 14
   5. Newcomers High School
   6. Robert F. Kennedy High School and Middle School

    --  Bronx:
   7. PS 89
   8. Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School

    --  Manhattan:
   9. Bread and Roses High School

    Two new schools
    --  Manhattan:
   10. PS 72
    --  Bronx:
   11. PS 279

About the AOL Time Warner Foundation

The AOL Time Warner Foundation works to help young people acquire the 21st Century Literacy skills they need to succeed at school, at work and in their communities. The Foundation engages the full range of AOL Time Warner's unique resources to build innovative and sustainable programs targeted toward underserved youth.

About AOL Time Warner

AOL Time Warner Inc. is the world's leading media and entertainment company, whose businesses include interactive services, cable systems, filmed entertainment, television networks, music and publishing.