College of Education -- Office of Evaluation Methods -- Cooperative Teacher Corps Program

Historical note

The Cooperative Teachers Corps Program was an experiment designed by the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle in cooperation with School District No. 19 of the Chicago Public Schools located in the near west side neighborhood of Pilsen. The aim of the program was to train teachers intended for urban schools in community immersion and local issues as well as curriculum development and classroom management. Administrators formed this initiative in response to concerns about teacher training; They argued that it failed to meet the educational and cultural needs of urban schools. The program strove to incorporate more community input into teacher training with the goal of better-prepared teachers who came from the communities they served. The Pilsen neighorhood was chosen for the location of the pilot program due to its immigrant population and the unmet bilingual needs of the students. Faculty in the Education department at the University also sought to build a connection between teacher training and the communities in which they found employment upon graduation. Administrators believed that an enhanced relationship between schools, communities, and teacher-training universities would lead to better-prepared teachers who were more responsive to community needs as a whole.