In a path-breaking partnership between a school of education and three of the highest performing urban charter school organizations, the Hunter College School of Education has joined forces with Achievement First, KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), Uncommon Schools, and the New York City Charter School Center to collaboratively design a teacher preparation program, that will lead to teacher certification and a master’s degree in education.

To prepare our students to be effective teachers in the partnering charter public schools, the partnership is creating a new model of teacher training that is focused on and responsive to the needs of the students in inner-city public schools. The training is unique in that is collaboratively designed and implemented by the Hunter College School of Education and four urban charter school consortia. Faculty for the program are full-time faculty of the Hunter College School of Education and experienced teachers and administrators from the partnership schools.

Students in this program teach in their respective schools while taking courses leading toward a master’s degree in education.  The courses and in-school clinical activities cover such areas as: classroom management, curriculum in the various subject areas, effective pedagogy for teaching these subjects, assessment of student learning, working with students with special needs – including English language learners – and working with parents and community organizations. During the program, students are closely monitored and supported through on-site visits by faculty, videotaping of their teaching, and meetings with faculty (both in person and through video-conferencing) to analyze these video records. We expect that students will attain master’s degrees and certification as teachers in New York State, as well as reciprocal certification in the other States represented in the partnership, after two years in the program.

Rather than a conventional teacher preparation program in which course work represents discrete and often disconnected elements of information, theory, and practice, this preparation program is fully integrated with classroom teaching and will constantly spiral back, reinforce, and deepen critical classroom skills.  Participants will present video portfolios of their teaching experiences in their schools, together with detailed self-analyses of those video case studies, in group discussions led by professors and master teachers from their schools.

The program was launched in June 2007 as a pilot program with a cohort of 40 teachers drawn from all three of the partnership’s charter schools. Tuition for the teachers was secured through an AmeriCorps Professional Service Corps grant to the School of Education, and the Robin Hood Foundation generously provided the charter school organizations with long-term support for the project through a major fundraising event.

The first courses-  “The Art and Science of Effective Teaching” and “Child Development”- were co-taught by four faculty (including department chairs) from the Hunter College School of Education, and three from the partnership schools, including Dave Levin, CEO of KIPP. All classes were videotaped for future reference and research purposes, and the teachers enrolled in the program are now matriculated as Hunter College students. The course work of this first cohort continues, drawing in some ten further faculty members from the School of Education and approximately the same number from the partner organizations, who are appointed as adjunct faculty at Hunter.

In June of 2008, we welcomed our second cohort of approximately 100 teachers, drawn from both our original partner organizations and other New York City charter schools. Our strategic plan calls for the doubling again of the cohort that will enroll in the program in the summer of 2009.