Urban Teacher Education Program:
New Teacher Preparation Model for New Century
One of the most important ways schools can enable all children to learn is to provide each student with quality teaching every day. The University’s Urban Teacher Education Program plays a crucial role in the Urban Education Institute by creating a new generation of teachers and teacher leaders who are prepared to succeed in urban classrooms in Chicago and the rest of the nation.
Teacher education has a distinguished history at the University of Chicago stemming back to John Dewey’s decade at the University from 1894-1904. A hundred years later UTEP offers a new preparation model for a new century.
- UTEP combines rigorous intellectual work and extensive classroom experience, more than double the guided classroom experience in many traditional preparation programs.
- Distinguished University faculty and top Chicago teachers instruct UTEP students and oversee the program. Its students benefit from the University’s engagement in research and curriculum development and support, such as the programs of the Center for Elementary Math and Science Education.
- UTEP graduates receive support from a UTEP coach for their first two years in the classroom in an attempt to battle national statistics that show that half of new teachers leave their first job within five years.
- Founded in 2003, the program is young but growing. Most UTEP graduates have chosen to stay in Chicago, working as teachers in almost a dozen different schools.
Students who successfully complete the program receive a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from the University’s Graham School of General Studies and an Illinois Teaching Certificate for elementary grades (K-9),with an optional middle school endorsement in English or mathematics. Plans are underway to add a high school preparation program in mathematics and science, two subject areas that continue to offer recruitment challenges for urban schools.
Detailed information is available at utep.uchicago.edu
UTEP director:
Admissions information and general information:
Read more about the community of support for UTEP graduates working in a Chicago school.
