The Urban Education Semester program is designed for undergraduates who are interested in public education and policy. Students from colleges such as Brown University, Franklin & Marshall, Holy Cross, Wesleyan, and Vassar have traditionally participated in the program. The program is now open to students from any college who are interested in understanding teaching, learning, and the complexities of equitable education in urban public school environments.

This 15-credit course sequence offers an intense opportunity for undergraduates, usually juniors, to combine experiential fieldwork in a variety of public school settings (in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens), group visits to alternative educational sites, and related coursework that may include the following courses:

• Foundations of Modern Education, or Principles and Problems in Elementary and Early Childhood Education - 3 credits
• Child Development, or The Social Worlds of Childhood - 3 credits
• Learning Practice and Theory: Making the Connection - 6 credits
• Supervised Fieldwork / Advisement - 3 credits

These courses help students integrate theory and practice in ways that relate to their undergraduate academic programs and to their career aspirations.

Students design a curriculum project that meets an identified need in the classroom or internship. This project is to foster a holistic understanding of responsive teaching and learning.

Students in the program earn 15 graduate credits which are applied to their undergraduate transcripts.