Company Profile
Bard Master of Arts in Teaching Program in Los Angeles
Company Overview
Bard MAT is a year-long, liberal arts-based teaching residency at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a community organization serving under-resourced LAUSD students in the city’s designated anti-poverty Promise Zone. In addition to completing extensive graduate courses and research expectations in their chosen content area, program residents serve as academic mentors in after-school programming for college-bound high school youth, conduct classroom-based research, develop curriculum and instructional activities, and complete a student-teaching internship in a local school. The residency leads to a single subject credential as well as an M.A.T. degree in literature, history, or music.
This community-based teaching residency is in the Central Los Angeles neighborhood recently designated as a poverty-alleviation Promise Zone. Consistent with the mission of Bard College, candidates spend the bulk of their coursework exploring subject matter in their respective academic fields, developing discipline-specific pedagogical practices, and exploring ways to convey the values of open inquiry and liberal arts learning to adolescents. Admitted applicants complete classes and community field placements at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a dynamic community organization on Wilshire Boulevard in a diverse, largely Latino community challenged by diminished educational opportunity and high rates of childhood poverty. Residency may also select a teaching placement option in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.
Candidates are expected to participate fully in the intellectual life of the Bard-HOLA community and complete coursework in their fields while building meaningful educative relationships with middle and high school youth. Program residents gain a deeper understanding of their subject area discipline, a masters degree, a California credential, and a year of instructional experience as part of an ambitious, place-based anti-poverty initiative. Programs are offered in literature, history, mathematics, biology, and music. http://www.bard.edu/mat/la
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Bard MAT is a year-long, liberal arts-based teaching residency at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), a community organization serving under-resourced LAUSD students in the city’s designated anti-poverty Promise Zone. In addition to completing extensive graduate courses and research expectations in their chosen content area, program residents serve as academic mentors in after-school programming for college-bound high school youth, conduct classroom-based research, develop curriculum and instructional activities, and complete a student-teaching internship in a local school. The residency leads to a single subject credential as well as an M.A.T. degree in literature, history, or music. http://www.bard.edu/mat/la