September 5, 2023 — At the end of each year, NCTR surveys Network members and participants in our Residency Design Academy (RDA) about their experience with us, as well as their preferences, goals, and priorities for the upcoming year. NCTR uses the data from the surveys to understand how we can improve and ensure our consulting meets our programs’ needs. We’re excited to share some key takeaways from this year’s survey, and how we’ve adjusted our programming and consulting in response to the data.
In total, 44 individuals representing 35 Network members participated in our Network Program Satisfaction Survey, and 11 individuals representing eight participants in NCTR’s RDA participated in our RDA Post-Programming Survey. Here are just a few of the key things we learned from the surveys:
- Being able to receive coaching and feedback from programs at similar stages of development is highly valuable.
- Financial sustainability is a shared priority and area where programs are most collectively interested in receiving support from NCTR.
- Opportunities and time to individually share and receive in-depth coaching and support on specific problems of practice from other programs is incredibly helpful.
- Aligning the timing and content of programming with program schedules and needs, especially RDA programming, contributes to greater program success.
Based on this feedback, and feedback gathered throughout the year, we’ve made a few adjustments to our Network and RDA programming for the upcoming 2023-2024 program year.
NCTR Network Programming
We have made some changes to our program offerings to better suit teacher residency program schedules and needs.
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- Our consulting services are now based on tiers, and programs can choose from 2, 5, or 9 consulting sessions this year. Every program will receive a goal-setting and data analysis meeting.
- For Black Educators Initiative (BEI) grantees, we have a BEI-specific consultant who will streamline programmatic and grant-reporting needs. Our professional learning communities (Pods) will follow a structured protocol that allows for feedback on problems of practice.
- Our community learning experiences will now take place quarterly, with opportunities to engage asynchronously between sessions. Each community learning experience will explore an essential question over the course of a year.
- We will have multiple opportunities to engage with each other in person through site visits and NCTR’s annual Symposium. Lastly, we are developing financial tools to support the sustainability of our programs.
NCTR RDA Programming
We have revised the RDA scope and sequence to better align with teacher residency program schedules and needs.
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- Historically, our fall programming focused on residency recruitment and selection. This year, our October institute will highlight the recruitment of not only teacher residents but also mentor teachers and training sites.
- Our site visit to a Network teacher residency program will now occur in November instead of January. Last year’s RDA participants shared feedback that they would like to see a residency in action as soon as possible.
- The virtual institute in February will be specific to the selection processes for teacher residents, mentor teachers, and training sites since cohort selection typically happens in the spring for most teacher residency programs.
- One of our most popular institutes focused on mentor teacher support. This year this institute has been renamed “Holistic Intentional Supports for Residents, Mentors, and Training Sites.” NCTR consultants will highlight the support of all collaborators in a teacher residency program, both academic and non-academic.
- Lastly, before the RDA programs launch, the month of April will be used to discuss program evaluation through assessments and progress monitoring of program impact goals.
We hope that these programming shifts will benefit and meet the needs of this year’s NCTR Network and residency design process for this year’s RDA cohort, as well as increase our reach and impact. We are thrilled to get started with this year’s Residency Design Academy, and to kick-off our year with NCTR’s largest Network to date. We also greatly appreciate our RDA programs’ and Network members’ participation in surveys and sharing feedback. We look forward to gathering more data and feedback on how we can continue to improve.