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

Equity Commitment

NCTR believes that teacher residencies are the best way to recruit, prepare, and retain diverse, culturally responsive teachers to teach students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. NCTR is deeply committed to not just preparing teacher residents to teach students of color, but preparing teacher residents of color to teach students of color. In fact, 69 percent of teacher residents in NCTR Network residencies identify as people of color, as reported in our 2022-2023 Annual Report.

NCTR acknowledges the role of America’s educational system in systemic oppression and takes collective responsibility to challenge and correct these systems and structures. At NCTR, we advocate for a just educational system and believe that being a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization will better enable us to achieve our mission and improve outcomes for all the students, teachers, and programs we serve.

NCTR invites individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to identify challenges and enact solutions to teacher preparation challenges. We honor and celebrate each individual’s strengths and aspire to model diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are committed to providing resources and modeling best practices for our partner organizations, who seek to improve teacher pipelines and ensure all students have access to quality teachers.

47

Network Programs

22

Residency Design Academy (RDA) Programs

26

States where Network & RDA programs are located

393

Partner Districts and CMOs

Selecting, Recruiting, and Retaining Teachers of Color

Teacher residencies focus on schools serving our highest need and most diverse student bodies that historically have struggled to attract and retain well-prepared teachers of color to eliminate racial disparities in educational outcomes. Teacher residencies are designed to address racial disparities in educational outcomes through the preparation of effective, diverse teachers. They are designed to reduce the systemic barriers that discourage people of color from entering and remaining in teaching. 

• 69% of teacher residents in NCTR’s Network identify as a person of color (NCTR Annual Report, 2022-2023) whereas only 21% of all new teachers nationally are persons of color (U.S. Department of Education, 2019)
• 28% of all teacher residents identify as Latinx (NCTR Annual Report, 2022-2023) versus 9% of the entire teaching field and 33% of teacher residents are Black (NCTR Annual Report, 2022-2023) compared to only 7% nationally (NCES, 2022) 
• NCTR Network residencies expressly recruit mentor teachers of color as 49% of mentor teachers working with teacher residents for 2022-2023 identify as a person of color (NCTR Annual Report, 2022–2023) 

Maya Alston is a teacher resident at the Memphis Teacher Residency. This photo was taken at Grizzlies Prep.