COHORTS

Each undergraduate in the Department of Teacher Education begins as a pre-major and applies for admission to a program i.e. early childhood, middle childhood, etc. Upon acceptance, candidates are assigned to a cohort.  This happens preferably during the first year as a pre-major. The cohort simply refers to the group of students who take certain courses together. In some programs, those cohort classes are full-semester blocks of methods or instructional procedures classes. In other programs, a cohort class could be a single, stand-alone course. Students must be admitted to their program cohorts to be allowed to take their cohort classes.

Admission to a program cohort is based on several factors:

Passing scores on Praxis I (reading:  173; math:  172; writing:  172) or ACT score of 21 or SAT score of 980
Miami Plan grade point average (2.5) after a minimum of 12 Miami Plan hours taken for a grade
Cumulative grade point average (2.5)
Essay
Dossier of experiences with children or youth comparable in age to the ages covered by the program.

Applications for program cohorts are typically available each year in late October in the outer office of 404 McGuffey Hall on the Oxford campus or in the academic advising offices on the regional campuses. Early childhood and middle childhood pre-majors are notified by e-mail when the applications are available. Adolescent/young adult and foreign language education majors apply for cohorts during their introductory course EDT 190.

Cohorts are filled a year in advance. This helps students prepare their academic plans of study and it helps the Department of Teacher Education plan and schedule courses. For example, students will be selected for the 2008-09 program cohort during 2006-07. Early childhood and middle childhood education programs have two cohort application deadlines in early February and early May. Adolescent/young adult and foreign language education programs just have one cohort application deadline in early May.  Specific deadline dates are on the program cohort applications.