Featured Program
The Urban Teacher Program: Path to Career in Urban Schools
“The more you know about your students, the more likely you are of creating a learning environment where positive outcomes can be achieved.”
The Urban Teacher Program enables teacher candidates to master the knowledge and skills needed to serve an increasingly diverse student body in urban schools.
Prospective urban educators complete an two-year degree at Inver Hills Community College or Minneapolis Community and Technical College and transfer seamlessly into upper division work at Metropolitan State University and several other institutions for teacher licensure.
Experiences in an urban school environment begin in the community college programs and continue throughout the professional core of teacher education at Metropolitan State University. Students complete their education by teaching in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and inner-ring suburban schools that enroll culturally and linguistically diverse youth.
Helping Minnesota Prepare A Diverse Teaching Workforce
The Urban Teaching Program encourages students of color to enter teaching careers:
Minneapolis Community and Technical College 51% students of color
Inver Hills Community College 25% students of color
Metropolitan State University 39% students of color
Community Colleges Offer Early Engagement
- Minneapolis Community and Technical College offers a two year urban experience in a learning community. The College uses a Teacher-as-Citizen model of teacher development in collaboration with the Public Achievement Initiative at the University of Minnesota Center for Democracy and Citizenship.
In Richfield, the program has worked with 100 young people over a two-year period to encourage them to consider teaching careers.
In spring 2006, the Urban Teacher Program will unveil a new collaboration with Big Brothers/ Big Sisters of Minnesota to give students hands-on experience with urban youth. Students will access a special on-line course and mentor one urban youth through the Inter-District Downtown School, Richfield Public Schools, or Edison High School.
- Inver Hills Community College uses service learning, seminars, and liberal arts courses to provide students with a program in pre-professional urban education. Students train with AmeriCorps-VISTA to be tutors for the America Reads program and are paired with a school in either St. Paul or Inver Grove Heights, where they assist teachers in elementary classrooms.
Metropolitan State University Adds New Options
Metropolitan State University offers approved licensure programs in early childhood education and grades 5-12 mathematics, science, social studies, and communication/writing arts.
The Urban Teacher Program at Metropolitan State University recently added a post-baccalaureate option and an Urban Elementary Education major (pending Board of Teaching licensure approval).
- The post-baccalaureate program enrolls people who either hold an existing teaching license and want to earn a second license in a new content area or who hold a non-teaching bachelor’s degree and are seeking their first teaching license in one of the four secondary licensure fields.
- The Urban Elementary Education major began initial course offerings in Spring 2006and will expand to a full program following approval by the Board of Teaching.
For more information, contact
Urban Teacher Program, Metropolitan State University, 612 659-7180,
utp-info@lists.metrostate.edu.
Roger Buffalohead, Urban Teacher Program, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, 612 659-6136,
Anne Auten, Urban Teacher Foundations, Inver Hills Community College , 651-554-3758, aauten@inverhills.edu .
PREVIOUSLY FEATURED PROGRAMS:
Bemidji State University, DliTE Program
