March 7, 2023 — Legislative sessions are in full swing in states across the country and there are conversations about teacher residencies underway in many statehouses; to name a few:
- In Texas, H.B. 2358 aims to create the Texas Teacher Residency Partnership Program, a state-funded program that supports K-12 and educator preparation program (EPP) partnerships for the purposes of providing paid, yearlong clinical residency opportunities for teacher candidates/applicants working alongside a skilled mentor teacher in partnering districts or schools. Additionally in Texas, The Governor Appointed Teacher Vacancy Task force recently released their final report. Among other items, the report specifically calls for the formal development (and funding) of a Teacher Residency Pathway in Texas.
- In Minnesota, companion bills H.F. 1138 and S.F. 1777 propose a Teacher Residency Grant Pilot Program. The program would prepare 400 teacher candidates/applicants through paid, yearlong clinically-based teacher preparation pathways provided through K-12 and higher education partnerships. Priority for grant awards are given to providers with the highest total number or percentage of teacher candidates/applicants who are people of color or American Indian.
- And in Washington, H.B. 1565, a bill now in the state Senate, includes a variety of proposed provisions to support and strengthen the educator workforce, including a teacher residency program. The program would provide a yearlong, paid learning experience in a public elementary or secondary school in which a teacher resident co-teaches with a mentor, while the teacher resident concurrently completes teacher preparation program coursework.
The teacher apprenticeship movement continues to gain steam as well. Teacher residencies can be the foundation of a high-quality teacher registered apprenticeship program. Education and labor systems are forging new partnerships and working relationships across the country as states like California and Tennessee continue to invest in developing, scaling, and sustaining teacher registered apprenticeships.
One source that we at NCTR will be using to focus our policy conversations going forward is the recently released NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative (BEI) policy report, titled Doing Better for Black Educators: Six Policy Recommendations for Improving the Recruitment and Preparation of Black Educators. Inspired by the work and impact of our BEI-supported teacher residency programs, this report is designed to help teacher preparation programs, school districts, and states use what BEI grantees are learning in order to improve the recruitment, preparation, and support of Black educators across the country. In the report, we suggest the following six policy recommendations as well as supporting action steps for each recommendation:
- Make teacher preparation financially accessible.
- Prioritize recruitment strategies that focus on Black educators.
- Ensure that teacher preparation programs are culturally and linguistically sustaining for Black educators.
- Employ affinity groups as a standard component of the teacher education experience.
- Invest in and support mentors who can cultivate prospective Black educators.
- Include voices of Black educators in the development of teacher education policy.
We encourage the field to integrate these recommendations into policy and practice related to teacher residencies but also teacher preparation more broadly.
We, at NCTR, are excited about these efforts to expand the impact of teacher residency programs. We will continue to support, inform, and advocate for the scaling of high-quality teacher residency programs because we know that they are one of the strongest ways to recruit, prepare, support, and retain an effective and diverse educator workforce. The success of all other educational strategies, initiatives, and reform efforts depends on a robust, parallel investment in the teaching profession. We applaud the nearly 50 teacher residency programs in our NCTR Network and the more than 100 programs nationwide that are operating teacher residency programs and advancing this movement, illustrating the potential of this strategy for the field.
For those of you who are deeply involved in trying to inform and drive evidence-based policy around teacher residencies (developing and delivering testimony, pulling together data and research, answering calls and doing interviews), keep it up! Policymakers need to see, hear, and learn from those who are doing the important work, including teacher residents themselves. And please don’t hesitate to reach out to NCTR for teacher residency policy and advocacy support.
Sincerely,
Cortney Rowland, Ph.D.
Director of State and Federal Policy
National Center for Teacher Residencies