Teacher U at Hunter College is a two-year teacher training program designed to be directly relevant to raising student achievement in classrooms.

Classes meet at Hunter’s campus at 68th Street and Lexington in Manhattan for approximately one Saturday per month, enabling enrolled teachers to balance the demands of a full teaching schedule with a reasonable course load. More importantly, the Teacher U courses focus on the core work of raising student achievement. Enrolled teachers also attend classes for five weeks over two summers.

Teachers receive transitional certification at the start of the program, permitting them to teach full-time as soon as they are enrolled. Upon successful completion of the program, which includes the achievement of results in the classroom, teachers graduate with a master’s degree from Hunter College and long-term state certification.

On each class day, for 8 hours, dynamic professors from leading educational institutions and master teachers from some of the most successful K-12 classrooms in the country will teach enrolled teachers material specific to their teaching needs. After each academically rigorous session, enrolled teachers will be able to take these practices and apply them directly in their classrooms.

Teacher U differentiates instruction between general and subject- and grade-level-specific sessions.

In Fall 2009, teachers split their time between General Literacy and General Math classes, which covered a general overview of research, content, and pedagogy; grade-level specific literacy classes, which further tailored literacy instruction; Teacher U framework classes, which focused on a particular element of the Teacher U framework, for example The Self, the Teaching Cycle, or Classroom Culture; and subject- and grade-level-specific classes.

In their subject- and grade-level-specific classes, an average of twenty teachers comprised a section instructed by a master teacher with experience and a record of remarkable student achievement in their subject and grade level. For example, all middle school social studies teachers spent the afternoon working with an exceptional teacher designing a lesson on the American Revolution, while next door, 3rd grade teachers spent the afternoon discussing compelling ways to teach multiplication.

With one rigorous and relevant day per month, Teacher U provides the tools to become a successful teacher in a schedule that complements a full workload.