The School of Education (SOE) Undergraduate Teacher Education licensure program prepares students for teaching positions in a variety of PK-12 public, charter, parochial and private school settings. The program blends theory and pedagogy with applied skills to ensure that students are equipped to maximize learning and achievement outcomes for 7th-12th grade students. In each course students are exposed to relevant and rigorous curriculum that advances high leverage teaching practices and culturally responsive pedagogical practices.

The Teacher Education Program offers a number of distinct benefits. As a SOE student you will: 

• work side by side with outstanding faculty in small, individual-focused classes that stress experiential learning
• participate in practicum and student-teaching experiences in DC, Maryland, and/or Virginia schools
• qualify for DC licensure with reciprocity in 47 states (see this page to verify licensure in the state you intend to work)
• enter a field projected by the US Labor Department to need 640,00 new hires in the next decade
• join a network of well-connected alums and faculty in a vibrant community of young professionals passionate about improving the world

Through our coursework and clinical experiences, AU SOE students build their skills and understandings to become excellent effective practitioners. Our graduates are able to:

• demonstrate a recognition of the beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices along with the structures, policies, and institutional systems that create barriers and perpetuate inequities in classrooms and identify concrete strategies to dismantle those barriers;
• use cognitive science principles to understand learning differences in order to create inclusive environments when creating and/or adapting instructional materials and implementing research-based instructional strategies that advance classroom equity and belonging while incorporating ongoing assessments to inform and impact instructional decisions for learner success;
• implement evidence-based content-specific pedagogies to deepen each learner’s content-knowledge in ways that create and sustain communities that support each individual to meet their full academic, social, and emotional potential;
• develop and implement research-based lessons that engage learners’ higher-order thinking and provide evidence of the learners’ knowledge and skills to inform future instruction; and
• demonstrate a professional responsibility to equitably meet the needs of all students and families through professional development, reflective analysis of evidence of teaching and learning, and building relationships with students, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members.

At AU we take these practices even deeper with the Learning by Scientific Design principles, in collaboration with the Deans for Impact. The Learning by Scientific Design Network is a collaborative of educator-preparation programs working to ensure future teachers understand basic principles of learning science and how to employ the principles when they teach Pre-service teachers practice and develop teaching actions that support all learners to deepen their content learning.

In their final semester, our student teachers develop a portfolio of their practice and its impact on student learning. This performance assessment engages our pre-service teachers in deep professional reflection about their support for all of their students’ content learning through an asset lens and research based best practices.

The program prepares graduates for teaching and leadership positions in the following settings:

• K-12 Schools
• Technical Schools
• Adult Schools
• Educational Agencies
• School District Offices

The Learning by Scientific Design Network is a collaborative of educator-preparation programs working to ensure future teachers understand basic principles of learning science and how to employ the principles when they teach.

Throughout your four years as an AU teacher education student you will build critical understandings of antiracist pedagogy. This will be accomplished through an intentional and reflective sequencing of courses that embed antiracist theories, practices, and understandings throughout your coursework and clinical experiences.

The course titled Introduction to Antiracist Pedagogy: Theories, Practice and Research serves as an introduction to antiracist knowledges, literacies, and capacities. You will learn about theories and research behind antiracist pedagogy and antiracist practices, conduct historical and cultural investigations of racism and the development of racial identity, and critically examine and discuss the role race has played-and continues to play-in structuring inequities in schools. You will also interrogate your own racial identity and examine your expectations, beliefs, assumptions, and stereotypes about students with ascribed marginalized identities.

Undergraduate teacher education candidates complete a four-course sequence to graduate with not only a teaching license but also an antiracist teaching certificate. The new courses ensure that as future educators, our teacher candidates are able to operationalize antiracism in their schools, classrooms and communities. 

The future four course sequence is below:

• Course 1: Race and Racism (first year)

• Course 2: Social Justice and Urban Education (second year)

• Course 3: Introduction to Antiracist Pedagogy: Theories, Practice and Research (junior year)
• Course 4: Antiracist Activism in Education (senior year)

The four-course sequence enables SOE graduates to embrace and embody the six pillars of Antiracist Educators, which are:

1. Engaging in ongoing critical self-reflection/self interrogation
2. Understanding antiracist pedagogy theories, practices and research
3. Integrating marginalized voices, perspectives, knowledges and epistemologies
4. Validating and affirming community knowledge systems
5. Linking theory, research and practice
6. Building and transforming relationships through relational accountability