The MUST outcomes are the overall guiding principles for the program. They represent the qualities an urban teacher should possess in order to provide an excellent education for her or his students. Below you will find each outcome with the characteristics you must possess to be judged proficient in that outcome. You must be judged to be at least proficient in each outcome in order to graduate from the program. Your proficiency in each outcome will be assessed throughout the course of the program through a portfolio assessment procedure which will be explained to you in detail after you are admitted.

Social Justice

1. Recognize and respect their own and their students’ personal, social, and cultural uniqueness and understanding how these attributes affect teaching and learning.
2. Reflect on and address effects of race, class, gender, linguistic difference, ability, and sexual orientation on their own and their students’ achievement.
3. Use this information to engage their students, to promote intrinsic motivation, and to encourage personal, professional risk-taking.
4. Promote their own and their students’ development of personal, school, and community literacies by using effective, culturally relevant classroom practices.

Urban Teaching

1. Encourage their students to actively participate in creating and governing their own learning experiences and environments, including assessment procedures.
2. Relate achievement to teaching strategies by reflecting on strategies and adjusting teaching and assessment practices to meet students’ individual and group needs.
3. Develop a range of relevant, holistic, learner-centered curricula that utilize available resources and produce authentic results.

Urban Schooling and Communities

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between school and the community, and of the community factors that influence students’ learning processes and academic achievement.
2. Promote their own and their students’ abilities to make informed, socially –conscious, democratic decisions within the classroom, the local community, and in a wider forum.
3. Develop and teach lessons that are explicitly relevant to the conditions and needs of students’ lives and communities (e.g., family concerns, transience, violent events, poverty).
4. Incorporate artifacts from students’ lives and communities into their teaching and utilize authentic activities and assessments.

Resilience, Resistance, and Persistence

1. Use personal and professional reflection to transform challenges related to student achievement into positive learning experiences.
2. Devise creative, relevant solutions to planning, classroom management, school, and community challenges.
3. Use personal resources to respond to a lack of school resources