The Transition to Teaching Program, a challenging, innovative, graduate teacher certification program, is a cooperative effort between The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC and the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Fairfax County, Virginia. The purpose of the program is to recruit highly qualified liberal arts and science graduates to the teaching profession. The program enables participants to obtain teacher certification in specific content areas in secondary education after completing an intensive one-year internship/course sequence.

Similar to a medical residency, the program places the graduate interns in Fairfax County secondary and high schools, where they function as full time members of the professional teaching staff. While the primary responsibility of each intern is to act as a permanent substitute teacher in the assigned school, the interns also observe and assist in classrooms on a regular basis, team teach, and in the spring semester, complete their student teaching requirement. The interns are observed and supervised by members of the secondary education faculty at GWU during the year-long school placement and complete the necessary coursework, twenty-four (24) credit hours , required for teacher certification through evening and summer classes at the university. The interns complete, at their own pace, the additional twelve (12) credit hours needed to finish the thirty-six (36) credit hour Master of Education degree.

Program participants are considered full-time graduate students at GWU for the duration of the program. They are entitled to all the benefits accorded full time students at the University. Tuition for eighteen (18) credit hours of course work and a monthly stipend are paid through a scholarship program administered by GWU, subject to renewal by the FCPS School Board every year. Any additional credits beyond the initial 18 of the 24 needed for certification and to complete the requirements for the M.Ed. degree are the financial responsibility of the intern.

Program participants are selected according to the criteria established for entrance to the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, and on the basis of a group interview with the secondary education and program director.

For further information , please contact the program director, Anita Scovanner Ramsey, at (202) 739-0600 or Dr. Shotel at jshotel@gwu.edu.