Our mission is to transform educator preparation

Shannon Gray is a teacher resident at the Memphis Teacher Residency. This photo was taken at Cornerstone Prep.

Our Commitment

NCTR believes that teacher residencies are the best way to prepare, support, and retain teachers who represent and value the communities they serve. NCTR is deeply committed to serving our teacher residency programs in effectively preparing educators to teach students across the nation–and keep educators in the classroom.

NCTR welcomes the varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of every individual and encourages them to identify challenges and enact solutions to teacher preparation. We honor and celebrate each individual’s strengths and aspire to provide resources and model best practices for our NCTR Network and Residency Design Academy (RDA) members that seek to improve the accessibility of teacher preparation pathways and ensure all students have access to quality teachers.

Selecting, Recruiting, and Retaining Teachers

Teacher residencies focus on schools that have a need to attract and retain well-prepared teachers for the classroom. Teacher residencies are designed to reduce the barriers that discourage aspiring educators from entering or remaining in the field and have been proven to support community needs in response to local teacher shortages, quality in preparedness, improving retention, and creating a workforce that reflects the communities it serves.

Susan Banchero is a teacher resident at RTR Teacher Residency. This picture was taken at Ettrick Elementary School.