The ITA Program was founded in 1984 to help prepare newly appointed international TAs for their roles as graduate Teaching Assistants at the University of Washington, and to assist them while they are teaching.
Approximately 15% of the TAs at UW are international students, and these TAs are assigned to a variety of roles including grading, holding office hours, tutoring, leading quiz sections, conducting labs, and lecturing.
To help prepare international TAs for these roles, the ITA Program offers workshops especially designed for international TAs at the
Annual TA Conference on Teaching and Learning in September and individual consultations with ITA Program staff during the international TAs' first two quarters of teaching.
International graduate students may be appointed as Teaching Assistants, provided they meet conditions specified in
Graduate School Memorandum 15. These conditions include:
- Satisfying Spoken English proficiency requirements, and
- Referral to the ITA Program at CIDR.
Spoken English Proficiency Requirements
To be admitted to the Graduate School, international students must meet the English language proficiency requirements specified in Graduate School Memorandum 8. To be appointed as a Teaching Assistant, international graduate students are also required to take a Spoken English proficiency test. They may take either the TSE, administered internationally by the Educational Testing Service, or the SPEAK, administered locally by the Test Center at UW's Office of Educational Assessment.
International graduate students whose Spoken English proficiency test results do not meet University of Washington requirements are required to pass English 102 (an ESL course for international teaching assistants) before being assigned teaching duties.
For more information about:
SPEAK
To find out about arranging to take the SPEAK test, see the SPEAK Test Information Sheet.
You can also contact the Testing Center at the Office of Educational Assessment
440 Schmitz Hall, Box 355837
University of Washington
Seattle WA 98195
phone: (206) 543-1170
TSE
To find out about TSE (Test of Spoken English) and to look at sample test questions, contact Educational Testing Service.
Educational Testing Service
Princeton, New Jersey 08541
phone: (609) 921-9000
English 102
To find out about English 102, contact English Language Programs.
4909 25th Avenue NE, Box 354232
University of Washington
Seattle WA 98195
phone: (206) 543-6242
During Spring Quarter, the Graduate School asks departments to identify international graduate students who are expected to be newly appointed as TAs during the following year. Departments are asked to refer these graduate students to the ITA Program at CIDR.
Newly appointed international TAs can be referred to the ITA Program at the same time that all other new TAs are referred to the Annual TA Conference on Teaching and Learning. One part of the referral form for the Conference asks departments to indicate which of their newly appointed TAs should also be referred to the ITA Program.
In September, newly appointed international TAs who have been referred by their departments participate in the
ITA Program Workshops at the Annual TA Conference on Teaching and Learning on the afternoon of the first day of the Conference. These workshops are desgined to address cultural and language issues related to working with students at UW. International TAs are welcome to attend other sessions (along with all other UW TAs) at other times during the Conference.
If international graduate students who do not attend the Annual TA Conference because they receive TA appointments partway through the academic year, they should still be referred to the ITA Program for
individual consulting during their first two quarters of teaching.
During the academic year, international TAs participate in individual consultations focusing on teaching effectiveness or communicating clearly in English. International TAs meet with a consultant from the ITA Program staff early each quarter to determine a specific plan for individualized consultations. Plans are designed and implemented in ways that take into account each TA's needs, teaching experience, the nature of his or her teaching assignment, and the amount and type of training and support offered by the TA's department. Examples of some of the activities and topics addressed during ongoing consultations can be found by going to the
ITA Consulting page.
In some cases observations by an ITA Program consultant or feedback from students indicates that a TA requires immediate assistance in order to perform his or her teaching duties effectively.
In these cases, the ITA Program will inform the appropriate departmental representative as soon as possible during the quarter, and will coordinate efforts with subject matter specialists in the department to determine the best ways of responding to the situation.
Each quarter, the ITA Program produces an End-of-Quarter Teaching Report for each TA summarizing his or her work with the ITA Program that quarter. These reports are given first to the international TA, who is given a chance to respond and/or add to the information in the report.
Copies are then made available to departments, and departments are given a chance to respond and/or add to the information in the report before copies are made available to the Dean of the Graduate School.
The ITA Program is one part of the Center for Instructional Development and Research (CIDR), a unit of the Graduate School which helps people who teach at the University of Washington as they seek to improve the quality of teaching and learning that takes place in their classes. For more information about CIDR, go to:
http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/
Members of the ITA Program Staff are also assigned to work with faculty and other TA clients who request CIDR services, and many international TAs who participate in the ITA Program come back in later years to request ongoing CIDR services as they continue teaching.
