Get the Facts Out (GFO) is a partnership between the Colorado School of Mines and six national societies: the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, National Council for Women in Information Technology, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, and the American Association for Employment in Education. GFO began in 2015 and is a unique project that is designed to reach STEM majors in a large fraction of all U.S. universities and has the potential to significantly address teacher shortages.
Repairing the Reputation of the Teaching Profession
GFO is a radical change in practice which shares positive facts about the profession through research-based, user-tested resources designed to help recruit and retain teachers. The GFO Project Team continually works to update and improve these resources as well as provide support to those who use them.
These resources, and all other content on this website, are intended to be used broadly. We encourage anyone to use and distribute these materials within the terms of the Creative Commons license.
Teachers in the U.S. rate their lives better than all other occupation groups, trailing only physicians.
Partners
Colorado School of Mines
Adams’ Project Team leads the Get the Facts Out efforts from Mines. GFO was born out of the partnerships that developed Teach@Mines, which offers pathways for all Mines students, undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni to earn a teaching license.
mines.edu/teacherprep/
Contact name
Wendy Adams, Director Teach@Mines, Physics Research Professor
Vince Kuo, Physics Teaching Professor
Allie Bolter, Director of Operations
American Physical Society
The APS is a non-profit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities.
aps.org
Contact name
Michael Wittmann, Head of Education
Annelise Roti Roti, Education Program Manager
American Chemical Society
The ACS is the world’s largest scientific society, and has the vision to improve people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry. ACS supports a division focused on K-12 education, and sponsors the K- 12 professional teaching society, the American Association of Chemistry Teachers (AACT).
acs.org
Contact name
Terri Chambers, Sr. Director, Education Division
American Association of Physics Teachers
The AAPT is a professional physics science society dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in physical science education, composed primarily of physics teachers at the secondary and higher education levels.
aapt.org
Contact name
Justine Boecker Harren, Interim K-12 Programs Manager
Drew Isola, GFO Director of Community Initiatives
Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators
AMTE is the largest professional organization devoted to the improvement of mathematics teacher education — it includes over 1,000 members supporting the preservice education and professional development of preK-16 teachers of mathematics. Members include professors, researchers, teacher-leaders, school mathematics coordinators, policy experts, graduate students, and others.
amte.net
Contact name
Kim Gill, Executive Director
Jean Lee, AMTE GFO Task Force Lead
American Associate for Employment in Education
AAEE provides resources and networking opportunities to connect higher education and school systems, both nationally and internationally. Members include professionals from colleges, universities, school systems and non-profit and for-profit organizations. AAEE is a resource and liaison to these professionals, facilitating quality PK-12 hiring practices. Learn more at aaee.org.
Contact name
Tim Neubert, Executive Director
Supporters
National Science Foundation
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1821710 & 1821462.
nsf.gov
100Kin10 (Past Supporter)
This project team’s collaborations have been financially supported by 100Kin10 and shepherded through the focused attention of Lauren Baier, Isis Krause, and Nathaniel Schacht. 100Kin10 unites 200+ of the nation’s top academic institutions, nonprofits, foundations, companies, and government agencies to train and retain 100,000 excellent STEM teachers by 2021. 100Kin10 offers partners the vision and resources to amplify their work, accelerate their collective efforts, and education the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. For more information, go to 100Kin10.org or e-mail info@100Kin10.org.
Affiliated Project
Physics Teacher Education Coalition
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) is a partnership between the AAPT and APS, and has a mission to improve and promote the education of future physics teachers. PhysTEC supported sites develop their physics teacher preparation programs into national models by implementing a set of key components that project leaders have identified as critical to success in physics teacher preparation.
phystec.org