The Rauch Foundation, a Long Island-based family foundation, has made two gifts to Teachers College totaling $725,000 to support the recruitment of outstanding scholars and future teachers who are committed to improving outcomes for children and families from high-need communities.

“From its inception 125 years ago, Teachers College has focused on preparing the best people to work with children and families and on conducting critical research on educational policy issues,” says Nancy Rauch Douzinas, President of the Rauch Foundation and a member of Teachers College’s Board of Trustees since 2010. “That dovetails with the mission of the Rauch Foundation, which invests in ideas and organizations that spark and sustain systemic change in our communities – for children and families, among other areas of focus.”

Reaching High-Need Schools

A $500,000 gift honoring Ms. Douzinas’s mother, the late Ruth Treiber Rauch, a Teachers College alumna, creates the Ruth Treiber Rauch Endowed Scholarship Fund, which will provide the College with a perpetual source of support to make a TC education more affordable for outstanding students who want to teach in high-need New York City public secondary schools.   

The Ruth Treiber Rauch Scholarship Fund will enable TC to offer up to two scholarships annually of as much as $12,500 each for students pursuing master’s degrees and teacher certification for secondary school. The recipients will work in high-need schools after leaving TC.

Teachers College has made it a priority to ease the debt burden of students who want to work in high-need areas.  

“We are grateful for every opportunity that allows us to ensure that the neediest students will get the best teachers,” says Ruth Vinz, the Enid & Lester Morse Chair in Teacher Education, and Professor in English Education. “This gift will not only support two TC students, it will also contribute to the learning and intellectual lives of the many young people they teach.” 

“At a time when our students are taking on a very heavy debt load to study in university-based teacher education programs, this scholarship will provide critical support for those who aspire to teach in high-need schools,” adds Marjorie Siegel, Professor of Education and Chair of TC’s Department of Curriculum and Teaching.

O. Roger Anderson, Professor of Natural Sciences and Chair of TC’s Department of Math, Science & Technology, applauded the Rauch Foundation for including support of preservice teachers in the STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) fields in its gift.

“Major gifts to support graduate teacher education in STEM fields such as this may help us attract the best students who prefer to teach, but who sometimes find other professional options more attractive due to better scholarship support,” Anderson says. “This will help us to keep TC on the forefront of STEM teacher education.”

A $225,000 grant from the Rauch Foundation will support a Post-Doctoral Fellow for three years at TC’s National Center for Children and Families (NCCF).

“We are thrilled to receive this funding,” says Sharon Lynn Kagan, TC’s Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy, and Co-director of NCCF. “Post-doctoral positions are quite coveted and attract the top scholars in the field.”

The Rauch Foundation produces the Long Island Index, which each year provides data to measure challenges, conduct comparisons with other suburban regions and adapt best practices. The Foundation previously funded a study by the National Center for Children and Families of child care and early education services on Long Island. The Post-Doctoral Fellow’s efforts will focus on evaluating and improving the distribution of services to young children in New York City and New York State.

“The Foundation seeks to cultivate new leaders in the field of early childhood and to support more research, data-collection and analysis of New York's early childhood system and the impact it is having on the most vulnerable children and families,” Douzinas said.  “Early childhood education is a key piece of the education system, preparing children for school that leads to future success.  We ultimately want more children to receive quality early learning opportunities, and this post-doctoral fellowship will help NCCF continue to produce high-quality and respected research that furthers our goals.” 

NCCF conducts interdisciplinary research to improve policy and practices in early childhood education programs and schooling that affect the well-being of children and families in the United States and around the world.

The Rauch Foundation has supported work by several TC faculty members, including Kagan, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Co-Director of the National Center for Children and Families) Amy Stuart Wells, Douglas Ready and Michael Rebell.

Published Wednesday, Jun. 19, 2013