Teaneck resident Maryann Woods-Murphy, an Allendale educator, has been chosen for excellence as part of a group of 100 outstanding educators nationwide to participate in the highly selective America Achieves Fellowship for Teachers and Principals. America Achieves is a non-profit organization with several initiatives including this Fellowship Program, supported with lead funding by Bloomberg Philanthropies as well as funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and was launched in 2010 as part of the inaugural NBC News Education Nation Summit.  

As part of the America Achieves Fellowship Program, Woods-Murphy will participate in the NBC News Education Nation Summit – a national conference held Sept. 23-25 in New York City – to discuss the state of education in America. Here, she will meet and advise public officials and educational leaders on educational policy and practice including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. This Fellowship Program helps communities and states leverage policy, practice, and leadership to build high quality educational systems.

During the coming year, these fellows will also meet again and participate in nationally significant projects to impact students, schools, and national educational policy to help prepare each student for success in careers, college, and citizenship.

One example of a Fellowship project is the America Achieves Common Core website, which can be accessed at www.americaachieves.org. This initial website will be unveiled during this year’s Education Nation Summit. By the end of this school year, this teacher-to-teacher website will be expanded with help from America Achieves Fellows to demonstrate for more than 100,000 teachers in New Jersey how to make the shift to the nation’s new, rigorous college- and career-ready standards in math and literacy at the grade levels they teach.

All America Achieves Fellows will participate at Education Nation. Most of them will participate in Education Nation’s kick-off this Sunday, Sept. 23, with a nationally televised Teacher Town Hall hosted by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. Those fellows will gather alongside other nationally recognized educators to explore solutions and opportunities in education today.

“We searched for the best educators in the nation to recognize as America Achieves Fellows and to expand their influence on educational policy and practice,” says Jon Schnur, executive chairman and co-founder of America Achieves. “This Fellowship enables outstanding teachers and principals to help improve education in their school districts and across the country without having to leave their role as school educators. The America Achieves Common Core website is a prime example of our Fellows working collaboratively to improve education.”

America Achieves Fellows were selected based on their profound impact on student achievement, the quality of their classroom and school leadership, and their commitment to learning and sharing their expertise. 

Maryann Woods-Murphy is a Spanish teacher at Northern Highlands Regional High School in New Jersey. She was a Washington Teaching Ambassador Fellowship in 2011, a New Jersey Teacher of the Year in 2010, and a Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Language Teacher of the Year in 2010.  She has had success in the Global Awareness Strategic Planning team, an action team created out of a “Future Search” planning activity involving all school stakeholders. For the past four years, the school has increased its focus on creating global awareness and cultural competencies in its students via extracurricular activities and a greater consciousness of cultural awareness in the curriculum.  Outside of education, she has a passion for writing, including blogs, poetry, and letters. She’s currently working on a book depicting her life in Spain from 1978-1982, during this country’s transition to Democracy.

About America Achieves
America Achieves is a non-profit organization with financial support from the Kern Family Foundation, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and others, as well as planning funds from the Hyde Family Foundations and the Noyce Foundation. In particular, this fellowship program is supported financially by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information visit www.americaachieves.org.