The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) announced today that it had received the largest gift in its history - a $40 million donation made anonymously by two Harvard Business School alumni.
The gift, which will be divided in two parts, will be used to support the School’s new Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) master’s program, which will enroll its first cohort of students this fall.
- Thirty million dollars will be placed in an endowment that will fund scholarships for 40 master’s candidates each year, allowing them to complete the program without having to take on substantial debt. The endowed scholarships will cover 80% of students’ tuition and also include a $10,000 stipend for living expenses. They will first be available for the cohort of students entering the program in the 2023-24 academic year.
- Ten million dollars will be used to leverage matching private contributions that will also provide financial aid for students in the program. The fund will match dollar-for-dollar, up to the $10 million cap, donations from other donors made by December 31, 2023.
Describing the gift as “game-changing,” HGSE Dean Bridget Long said it would enable the school to address critical needs now facing teacher preparation programs. “We’re currently seeing our education system strain under the weight of an unprecedented two-year global pandemic — a pandemic that laid bare many persistent inequities that have long blocked opportunity for too many students.”
Long added that the gift would allow HGSE to continue its history of innovative programs that prepare “the equity-focused, effective teachers all students need and deserve.”
The Teaching and Teacher Leadership Program is the result of a seven-year effort by HGSE to overhaul the curricula of its educator preparation master’s programs. One of its distinctive qualities is that it will train both novice teachers and those educators who are more experienced.
A teaching strand aims to prepare both novice and early-career teachers to pursue Massachusetts initial licensure in secondary education through a residency or internship fieldwork. A teacher leadership strand helps experienced teachers develop instructional leadership and coaching skills. According to the program, the intentional mixture of experience levels and diverse backgrounds is one of its “signature strengths.”
Another emphasis of the TTL Program will be an attempt to build ongoing teacher communities that provide continued support, learning, and collaboration.
“Where I think our graduates will be distinctively prepared as educators and leaders in our K–12 schools is our deep emphasis on cohort-based preparation for teachers,” said Victor Pereira, faculty co-chair of the TTL Program and a longtime teacher, instructional coach, and mentor. He added that the relationships developed in the program should create “a strong network of supported, confident learning...leading to the kind of preparation that fosters a highly skilled and well-structured pathway to the classroom.”
Although the two donors were not identified, Harvard’s announcement indicated that they had previously demonstrated an “impactful record of support for Harvard’s leadership in the field of education.”
