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Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State
The Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) program, is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. TEA provides secondary-school teachers from Eurasia, South Asia, Sub-Saharian Africa, the Western Hemisphere with unique opportunities to develop expertise in their subject areas, enhance their teaching skills, and increase their knowledge about the United States.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
Teacher Training: TEA participants attend a six-week professional development program at a US university that includes coursework and intensive training in teaching methodologies, curriculum development, teaching strategies, and the use of technology for education. The program builds educational leadership skills and provides experience that can be shaped for the participants’ home teaching environments. A three-week internship at a US secondary school allows the TEA overseas participants to actively immerse into the American classroom environment. The program concludes with the End of Program Workshop focusing on best practices in educational leadership.
US Teachers Reciprocal Visits: The program provides US teachers with opportunities to conduct ten-day to two-week visits to participating countries following the overseas teachers professional development programs in the United States. Each US teacher is hosted by a TEA alumni school in the participating country where they team-teach, and discuss best teaching practices, curriculum, and educational issues in the host country. The trip includes visits to local schools and parents’ committees, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and speaking to local government officials and meeting with Ministry of Education representatives. Prior to traveling overseas, US teachers participate in the End of Program Workshop hosted by a US TEA university where they meet with the international teachers.
International Partnerships for Professional Development and Education: In addition to the US-based training component of TEA, the program provides grants to TEA international alumni to conduct activities that build on the exchange visits. The grants provide opportunities for collaboration between program alumni and US colleagues or host schools and for conducting teacher training events and training-of-trainers cycles in TEA alumni’s home countries. The school-teachers travel to the United States to participate in a six-week professional development program at a US university. This is followed by a reciprocal visit of US teachers to work on joint teacher-training projects in TEA alumni schools overseas. TEA also provides follow-on grants to the international teachers to purchase essential materials for their schools, offer follow-on training for other teachers, and conduct activities that will build on the exchange visits.
The US fellowship is fully-funded and provides:
In spring 2010 a cohort of 40 U.S. teachers will reciprocate the visits of the international teachers. Also, TEA will provide follow-on grants to the international teachers to purchase essential materials for their schools, to offer follow-on training for other teachers, and to conduct other activities that will build on the exchange visits.
Eligible applicants for the TEA Program must be secondary-level, full-time teachers with five or more years of classroom experience in either English as a Foreign Language or Social Sciences (social studies, civics, economics or history). Citizens of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, India, Bangladesh, Argentina, Cambodia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Senega are eligible.
