The Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching (COST) is a voluntary pact of mutual understanding among a group of colleges and universities acting through their schools, colleges, or departments of education to provide opportunities for quality student teaching placement and supervision in a setting outside the United States.

Since 1973 COST has been engaged in arranging student teaching experiences that will, in addition to developing the professional skills associated with teaching, provide unique opportunities for prospective teachers to become sensitive to, and better informed about, international and domestic affairs.

Since its inception in 1973, COST has sent more than 600 college seniors overseas to fulfill their student teaching requirements in American-sponsored overseas schools, or in overseas schools under the supervision of overseas teacher education institutions with which COST has a working agreement. Significant international/intercultural experiences have been gained by these students. In many cases, the COST experience has been the first opportunity for the participants to leave the U.S.A.

This program provides future teachers with the opportunity to try their educational theories in classroom situations within the context of a new country, a new culture and a new style of life. Some of the student teachers who participate in the overseas clinical experience accept full-time jobs overseas after finishing. All of them return to the U.S. with a new and special appreciation for their overseas hosts.

Placement opportunities arranged by COST have expanded from the original schools in Latin America to national and international schools throughout most of the world.

Students participating in the program often live in homes of local citizens, thus gaining a priceless opportunity to become immersed in the culture of the country in which they are located. Even when students choose accommodations in another type of non-family situation, they are intimately connected with the local culture.

The directors of the overseas schools and the cooperating teachers in these schools have accepted unique responsibilities in this program. The cooperative efforts of the teachers and directors overseas are key elements of this program. We, the member institutions of COST, join in expressing our appreciation to the staff and administration of the overseas schools who give freely and generously of their time and experience in helping our students enter their countries, set up living quarters and fulfill their practical experience in the overseas setting.