May 22, 2023 — As states and school districts search for strategies to attenuate the current crisis in the educator labor force, one promising approach that has gained traction in recent years is Teacher Residency Programs. Teacher residency is an alternative pathway into teaching for career switchers or recent college graduates that is co-led by school districts and institutions of higher education. More districts are experimenting with teacher residencies now than in recent years—in part because states and districts were allowed to use federal pandemic relief aid to support these programs. In this post, we provide an overview of what teacher residency programs are and discuss the nascent evidence on their effectiveness and cost.
