"For years, we have been pursuing reforms in education that put children first. By focusing on proven instructional methods and student achievement, Teacher U is preparing teachers to make an enormously important difference to children throughout New York City and the nation."
—Joel Klein, New York City Schools Chancellor
After 15 years of creating 100 of the nation’s most celebrated urban schools and developing more than a thousand of the nation’s most successful educators, leaders from Uncommon Schools, KIPP, and Achievement First collaborated to launch Teacher U, an organization dedicated to sharing their most effective practices with teachers. A partnership with the Hunter College School of Education established a teacher training program: Teacher U at Hunter College.
Teacher U believes that great teaching can be taught. Any individual with the dedication and drive to succeed, when equipped with the right skills and guidance, can become a great teacher. Often, those who can’t get this support struggle and leave the profession, despite a desire to effect great change in their students. Those who can, teach. Teacher U pledges to provide all enrolled teachers with the support needed to succeed.
Hunter College’s finest professors, and leading principals and classroom instructors from the founding partner organizations, teach enrolled teachers in an exciting, rigorous curriculum that emphasizes tactical academic skills and character strengths. With a results-oriented curriculum that uses video observation to reinforce practice-based instruction, Teacher U hopes to expand the ranks of great teachers nationwide.
- Our mission is to teach teachers to develop in all students the academic skills and strength of character needed to succeed in college and life.
- Our measurable goal is that all who graduate with a master’s degree from the Teacher U at Hunter College program will lead their students to demonstrably remarkable annual achievement gains.
- Our long-term vision is that Teacher U will bring about transformational change in teacher preparation and will become a place where a new generation of continuously-improving, results-focused individuals will fulfill their fate in the world’s greatest profession. By doing so, we aim to be instrumental in the urgent drive to close the achievement gap in urban communities. We do so not in isolation, but as part of an education reform movement shaped by Uncommon Schools, KIPP, Achievement First, and Teach For America.