About iteachUS

History

In 2002, Diann Huber, Ed.D., while teaching at a large state university, realized that there was a tremendous need to address not only the changing demographics of individuals interested in purposing a teaching career but the needs of schools districts as they labored to comply with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. In January, 2003 iteachTEXAS was approved by the Texas State Board for Educator Certification as the first private entity offering teacher certification with all curriculum delivered online. Within three years, i teachTEXAS had grown to be the one of the largest providers of initially certified teachers in the state. The success of iteachU.S. can be attributed to the fluid combination of highly effective personnel, focused pedagogical curricula, supportive classroom mentoring and outstanding service to school districts.

Realizing that the need for Highly Qualified / Highly Effective teachers extended to all states, iteachU.S. was created in 2007. By establishing state approved certification programs that offer individualized curriculum aligned with specific state standards iteachU.S. will replicate the means that have lead to the extraordinary success of i teachTEXAS.

Vision

The vision of iteachU.S. will be to establish the premier route to certification by enhancing the capacity of the teaching profession to provide equal educational opportunities for all segments of the culture. The unit strives to prepare caring, effective, and competent professional educators, committed to lead others to lifelong learning. With the desire to diversify the teaching force and the administrative staff, particularly in urban and rural areas, and by addressing regional and subject-specific teacher shortages, iteachU.S. promises to provide a solution to the multifaceted problem of educating all students for a multicultural and global learning communities.

Mission

iteachU.S. commits to a mission of excellence in teacher preparation in an evolving technological world. Through the recruitment, training and support of qualified degreed individuals, the emerging shortage of highly qualified, highly effective teachers and administrators can be reduced, especially in the identified high needs areas of Bilingual Education, Spanish, Math and Science. iteachU.S. is designed to offer excellent educational experiences and an innovate delivery system to transform a diversified candidate pool into leaders, impacting the lives and learning of EC – 12 learners in a global society.

Purpose

The purpose of iteachU.S. is to establish an urgently needed alternative route to certification with a major focus on pedagogy to effectively serve a changing workforce via on-line instruction. iteachU.S. is designed to recruit, prepare, and license qualified and talented individuals for the teaching profession.

Building on the philosophical components of iteachU.S., the curriculum is designed to develop the human potential by improving the candidate’s ability to display the dispositions of a highly effective educator by consistently demonstrating the following proficiencies:

  • Candidate acknowledges that all students can learn
  • Candidate develops strategies to seek students' views in order to understand their prior knowledge
  • Candidate employs a classroom discipline plan to ensure a democratic classroom environment with respect for the individual’s cultural background and exceptionalities
  • Candidate commits to continuous reflection of instruction and assessment
  • Candidate incorporates questioning strategies aimed to develop higher-order thinking skills in students
  • Candidate develops methodology which ensures learners are not passive, but active in all aspects
  • Candidate communicates instructional material effectively in order to involve the students in problem solving, to assist students in "seeing" and thinking, to provide a concrete basis for abstract concepts, and to assist in collaborative group learning

Goals

Drawing upon formal input from faculty, staff, and school personnel, the iteachU.S. Executive Committee and Advisory Board have committed i teachU.S to effectively accomplish the following:

  • Recruit a diverse teacher candidate population
  • Emphasize content and pedagogical knowledge acquired through best practice of academic disciplines and research
  • Include extensive collaboration across the program with the school districts in the design and delivery of the program
  • Incorporate the most recent educational standards of the state and NCATE into the program’s curriculum
  • Respond to the rapid demographic, social, and technological changes that characterize today's world
  • Yield a higher retention rate than those entering teaching from traditional college-based programs