CoT's Students

The program's high level of personalization has made it an attractive option for teacher candidates in widely different circumstances:

• Teacher candidates who are working toward bachelor's degrees. Begin their work in CoT as sophomores or juniors, occasionally even seniors.
• Comparatively recent graduates with baccalaureate degrees who now wish to become middle or high school teachers. May do their work in three ways, as license-only students, as students pursuing a second bachelor's if their undergraduate area doesn't match well to teaching, or as part of a master's degree in education or a master of arts degree (MAT) in their discipline.
• Mid-career changers who have at least baccalaureate degrees and have worked in one or more careers. May have one or more graduate degrees, including MBAs, JDPs, and PhDs. If their previous career shared some of the demands of teaching, they may already have satisfactory evidence for a significant portion of the Portfolio.
• Current full-time middle and high school teachers who do not hold licenses. May use their ongoing teaching as their Apprenticeship. If they have accumulated three years of successful teaching by the time they finish their Portfolio they may waive the normal student teaching requirement, a great advantage since state law prohibits student teachers being paid employees of a school.

CoT Testimonial:

"An inside joke boasts that the most wonderful feature of CoT is that it gives teacher candidates so much control over their preparation as teachers.  So what, then, is the most damnable feature of the program?  Why, that it gives teacher candidates so much control over their preparation as teachers, of course."