Subscribe to our email list
The best teachers are the ones that already know your kids.
The best teachers are the ones that already know your kids.
Leadership Council Chronicle
July 2022
Whitney Cyriacks and Parents
CUE teacher candidate Whitney Cyriacks with her parents
New Students!
Please join us for new student orientation on Saturday, August 6, 2022, from 8:30 AM to 11:00 AM at the Lowry Campus, 1059 Alton Way, Denver CO 80230.

Thinking about Becoming a Teacher?

We are enrolling new students for the spring 2023 semester.
Call Dr. Rosanne Fulton, Director, UNC Center for Urban Education, at 303-637-4334 or email for more information.
Watch our short video to learn more about the CUE teacher-preparation program.
Watch Video

3 Critical Elements of "Grow Your Own" Teacher Programs

UNC Center for Urban Education Director Rosanne Fulton and Professor Brandon Grossman were invited to post this article on the National Association of Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) blog. They thank NAFSCE leaders Margaret Caspe and Cecilia Liang for their support with this publication.
To address the teacher shortage, colleges and universities must reimagine the traditional approach to educator preparation. At UNC Center for Urban Education (CUE), we do that by using a “Grow Your Own” teacher model. There are three elements that make our model successful:
  1. Recruiting from the local community;
  2. Providing opportunities for hands-on experiences with families; and
  3. Embedding family/community engagement in the entire curriculum.

Recruiting Educators from the Community

We recruit candidates from local schools and community colleges. There’s no need to pull teacher candidates from all over the country—they’re right in our own back yard. We graduate a diverse group of teacher candidates that more accurately reflects the demographics of the students they teach. More than 70% of our current teacher candidates identify as students of color. More than 90% are first-generation college students.
Once they graduate from our program, many choose to work in the same schools and districts where they went to school as children. They’re from the community, and they want to give back to the community.
Most of CUE’s teacher candidates are intimately familiar with the community because they grew up here or have children who attend local schools. Once they graduate from our program, many choose to work in the same schools and districts where they went to school as children. They’re from the community, and they want to give back to the community.
CUE Students
Current CUE students

Providing Opportunities for Hands-on Experiences with Families

From day one in our program, teacher candidates work in local PK–12 schools to gain clinical experience. They take courses in the afternoon and evenings and work in the mornings as paraeducators. This way, they can immediately apply what they’ve learned and see it in action.
Because they’re working in schools, our educators have the opportunity to build mutually trusting relationships with families through regular communication. They create relationships with families during formal and informal meetings and through in-person and online conversations. This practice also helps our students develop new racial and cultural sensitivities and thereby improve outcomes for their students.
Belen Gomez Ruelas and Son
CUE teacher candidate Belén Gomez Ruelas with her son

Embedding Family and Community Engagement throughout the Curriculum

The third element that makes our “Grow Your Own” model so successful is that we intentionally embed the topics of family and community engagement in all of our coursework. And it’s easy for CUE teacher candidates to apply the new knowledge to the classroom: 40% of them are parents themselves. They understand on a personal and professional level the expertise that parents can bring to the table. Day to day, our CUE teacher candidates develop sensitivity and humility so that they are open to learning from parents and community members.
Our teacher candidates learn to associate math and science with their everyday lives at home and in the community. 
CUE Students
Current CUE students
We believe it’s especially important to bring that practice into the fields of mathematics and science, where students of color are typically underrepresented. Our teacher candidates learn to associate math and science with their everyday lives at home and in the community. Science becomes less about lab tables and answering questions at the back of a textbook and more about learning the physics of skateboarding, observing birds during a hike, and asking culturally significant and important questions about the world around us.
-------
By recruiting from the local community, ensuring that our students have hands-on experiences with families, and embedding family/community engagement in the curriculum, we graduate educators who are immediately successful in our urban classrooms.
Frank Davila

CU Denver Honors CUE Professor Frank Dávila

Being a professor at the UNC Center for Urban Education is just one of the many roles Frank Dávila plays. He’s also a loving husband and father, community leader, veteran, and musician. The University of Colorado at Denver recently honored Dávila by commissioning renowned mural artist Thomas Evans, aka Detour, to paint Dávila’s portrait.
About his experience at CU Denver, Dávila said, “I grew up as a migrant worker in Texas. At CU Denver, I became comfortable when I learned to go into my past, my heritage, and be proud of it. Being able to appreciate where I came from and where I found myself then—that was beautiful to me.”
Along with portraits or murals of six other alumni of color, the university hopes to “paint the picture” of a new future for the institution. In her blog post, CU Denver Chancellor Michelle Marks said that the school wants to “…create a new model of higher education that works for all learners,” and ensure greater access to high-quality education.
Read more about the honorees on the CU website.

Newsletter Archive

Did you miss previous issues of the Chronicle? Visit the Leadership Council page on our website, scroll down, and click on past newsletters.

Contact Us

Rosanne Fulton, PhD
Director, Center for Urban Education
UNC Denver Center at Lowry
1059 Alton Way
Denver CO 80230
Office: 303-637-4334
rosanne.fulton@unco.edu
www.unco.edu/UrbanEd
Manage your preferences | Opt out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
University of Northern Colorado | 501 20th Street
Greeley, CO | 80639 US
This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.