Oberlin College’s new Graduate Teacher Education  Program (GTEP) in partnership with the Oberlin City School District will welcome its first class of teacher candidate students in June 2008, announces Deborah Roose, director of GTEP and Andrew and Pauline Delaney Professor at Oberlin.

The College recently received national accreditation and state approval for the 12-month program, which leads to a master of education degree with initial teaching licensure in early or middle childhood education. Applications are now being accepted and will be considered on a rolling basis beginning February 1, 2008.

“We are delighted to begin the process of admitting students into the program,” says Roose, who has established and successfully led similar programs at Michigan’s Albion College and at Guilford College in North Carolina.

“During the past year, we’ve received inquiries from current students and alumni, their relatives, and a number of people who learned of GTEP on their own. There is a great deal of interest in this program not only because it is so unique, but because its curriculum reflects the College’s mission and reinforces the idea of social justice and environmental action through education.  

“Oberlin’s rigorous academic standards and close relationship with a small school district set GTEP apart from similar programs at peer institutions,” Roose points out. “For that reason, very few programs can offer top caliber teaching candidates this type of intensive, cutting-edge preparation.”

The program will begin with a class of approximately 13 students; maximum enrollment is aimed at 21. GTEP faculty members will team with K-9 Oberlin city school teachers to provide instruction in educational philosophy and pedagogy and extensive field experience in the classroom. GTEP hopes to add adolescent /young adult (high school) education in a few years.

“We are committed to a high quality partnership between the Graduate Teacher Education Program and the Oberlin City School District,” says Oberlin School Superintendent Geoffrey Andrews. “Working with some of our finest teachers, especially in a progressive district such as Oberlin, will position OC teacher candidates as highly employable upon graduation and enable us to provide more group and individualized attention for each child.”

“One of the program’s most important aspects is the diversity of the Oberlin schools and the challenges inherent in such a setting,” says Roose, who has extensive experience working with similar public school systems and has done research in the area of teacher preparation for multicultural educators.

“The make-up of the Oberlin City Schools represents a diversity more typical of an urban center than a small town, with students of different races, incomes, abilities, and motivation. Our graduates will be highly marketable both in the public and private sector, no matter where they decide to pursue a teaching career.”

Applicants are not required to be Oberlin graduates. However, all candidates must have a solid understanding of their subject matter to better concentrate on acquiring effective teaching skills, and their undergraduate degrees must include a broad range of courses in the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and natural sciences, and a GPA of 3.0.

Detailed information is available on the program’s website oberlin.edu/teachereducation, by email at gtep@oberlin.edu, or by calling 440-775-8008.