Program

The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute is an educational partnership between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools designed to strengthen teaching and learning in local schools and, by example and direct assistance, in schools around the country. Through the Institute, Yale faculty members and New Haven school teachers work together in a collegial relationship. The Institute is also an interschool and interdisciplinary forum for teachers to collaborate on new curricula. Each participating teacher becomes an Institute Fellow and prepares a curriculum unit to be taught the following year. Teachers have primary responsibility for identifying the subjects the Institute addresses.

Studies have shown that Institute participation has increased teachers' preparation in their disciplines, raised their morale, heightened their expectations of their students, encouraged them to remain in teaching in New Haven, and has, in turn, enhanced student performance. Curriculum units Fellows have developed are used extensively in school courses.

Since its inception in 1978, the Institute has been recognized repeatedly as a pioneering and successful model of university-school collaboration; in 1990 it became the first program of its type to be permanently endowed as a unit of a university. In 2004 the Institute undertook the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools, a long-term endeavor to establish exemplary Teachers Institutes in states throughout the nation.

Requirements: In applying to become a Fellow of the Institute, each teacher agrees to participate fully in program activities by: 1) attending all talks and seminar meetings; 2) researching both the seminar subject and the unit topic; 3) meeting due dates in preparing a curriculum unit consistent with Institute guidelines; and 4) submitting a written evaluation of the program. Fellows who meet these expectations become for one year members of the Yale community with borrowing privileges at the University libraries and access to other campus facilities and resources.

Upon successful completion of the Institute, Fellows receive an honorarium of $1500 and four Continuing Education Units, and may petition for certification of their course of study. Any Fellow who intends to seek for Institute studies to be recognized for credit in a degree program is advised to consult in advance with the dean of the institution where he or she is enrolled.

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