Accelerating Careers in Teaching

To assist you in your growth as a teacher, ACT provides several resources:

• A Faculty Mentor: This is your go-to person who will guide your learning, coordinate with school administrators, observe your teaching and provide feedback, facilitate group meetings, meet with you one-on-one, and evaluate your growth. They are an employee of UCCS.
• A Mentor Teacher: This is a person in your school building who can collaborate with you and provide insight on how the school functions. They are an employee of the school.
• Online Learning Resources: These tutorial modules are designed to provide you with in depth and practical content knowledge that you can apply in your classroom immediately. Your Faculty Mentor will work with you to co-construct a learning progression based on your unique background.
• Observations and Feedback: Your Faculty Mentor and Mentor Teacher will come observe you teach and provide feedback to you as you develop critical instructional strategies and skills.
• Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): You will meet with your Faculty Mentor and other ACTors in monthly PLCs to examine problems of practice relevant to your unique teaching situation and related to the competency areas of teaching.
• Program Faculty Director: This person will assist in logistics from start to finish. They will advise you on how to apply, how to start the program, and help you secure your initial teaching license with the Colorado Department of Education when you complete ACT.

ACT supports initial teacher licensure in the following endorsements:

• Agriculture & Natural Resources Education (grades 6-12)
• Computer Science (grades K-12)
• Dance (grades K-12)
• Drama Theater Arts (grades K-12)
• Elementary Education (grades K-6)
• English Language Arts (grades 6-12)
• Mathematics - Middle School (grades 6-8)
• Mathematics - Secondary (grades 6-12)
• Music (grades K-12)
• Physical Education (grades K-12)
• Science (grades 6-12)
• Social Studies (grades 6-12)
• World Languages (grades K-12)
• Visual Arts (grades K-12)

The ACT curriculum is grounded in five central themes which represent the essential capacities of effective educators:

• Relationships, Roles, and Routines
• Planning, Instruction, and Assessment
• The Science of Learning
• The Art of Teaching
• Standards and Curricula

These themes are woven throughout self-paced asynchronous learning opportunities for understanding the fundamentals of teaching and hands-on ways to apply, practice, and hone your skills.

Content Competency

Before starting ACT, you must first obtain a bachelor's degree. A degree in the content area you plan to teach is preferable, though not necessary. You may also demonstrate content competency by one of the Multiple Measures outlined by CDE. See Colorado Teacher Endorsement Requirements | CDE for more information. If you need to take a Praxis exam to demonstrate content competency, be sure your scores are sent to UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO CO SPRG (4874) and the Colorado Department of Education (7040).

Instructional Competency

ACT requires that you teach as a teacher of record for a minimum of one year and meet proficiency in all competency areas of teaching. See this list of teacher standards: Educator Preparation Standards Matrices | CDE.

You will document your proficiency with these competencies in a culminating Capstone Portfolio, a collection of 'artifacts' demonstrating your growth and achievements as a teacher across your experience in ACT.

1. Meet with the Program Director.

Schedule a time to meet with Curtis Turner (cturner4@uccs.edu), the ACT Faculty Director. They will tell you more about the program and answer your questions. They will help you to know if ACT is right for you. 

2. Secure a Teaching Position.

There are several ways that you can get hired as a teacher. Get out there! Go to job fairs. Talk with teachers and principals. Check out local districts' job boards. Most importantly, reach out to TEACH Colorado (see link below).

3. Apply for ACT.

You will need to provide the following materials before beginning ACT:

• Your transcript (showing that you have earned a bachelor's degree at minimum)
• Your teaching contract or letter of offer (showing that you have been hired to teach)
• Your Praxis exam score report(s), if applicable

Once these are received, the Faculty Director will help you enroll in ACT.

4. Obtain an Alternative Teaching License.

An alternative teaching license will enable you to begin work as a teacher of record in a school building. Review the Alternative Teacher License / Alternative Interim Authorization checklist on the CDE website for these steps. 

You can start ACT at any time!

For payment purposes, your year is scheduled in three 4-month blocks. Your first block will cost $500; the second will cost $3,000; and the third will cost $3,500. 

If you need more time to demonstrate all the teacher competencies, each additional block will cost $1,500.