September 10, 2024 — This year, the Memphis Teacher Residency (MTR) recognizes 15 years of service to recruiting and preparing teacher residents in Memphis. In acknowledgement of this milestone, MTR has rebranded its logo, hosted a back to school picnic that celebrated current teacher residents and graduates, plan to host a series of gatherings to share the history and impact of MTR with others in Memphis, and more.
The impact of MTR reverberates across the country, as “teacher residents from over 200 universities in over 35 different states have joined MTR since 2009,” according to its website.
We asked Memphis Teacher Residency Executive Director David Montague about MTR’s milestone, in which he stated, “I believe the best is yet to come.”
Q: As an exemplary program, what/who do you attribute to the longevity of the Memphis Teacher Residency?
Well, first, exemplary is generous and kind. If so, it is because of 15 years of hard work and very helpful input from residents, staff, NCTR, and many other residency program friends’ willingness to share their best practices. Who we are today is a collection and summary of lessons learned from so many kind and smart people and places along the way. Thank you!
To your question about longevity, I would say there are three aspects that come to mind first:
– Committed financial partners. A group of partners have chosen to own this work with us – we are not alone financially.
– Clear mission. We have a simple idea – Christian love expressed in equal education – that is attractive, compelling and sustaining to many people which provides us an ongoing source of interested residents, donors, and school partners.
– Culture of community. The work is hard and so we strive to foster a “team and family” culture filled with both high expectations and care, grace and generosity of spirit that many people appreciate, support, and continue to invest into – which then attracts others. It’s reciprocal.
Q: We appreciate our collaboration with your teacher residency program. How would you say NCTR has contributed to the growth and sustainability of the Memphis Teacher Residency?
How has it not…?!?! I was introduced to the then-named Urban Teacher Residency United (UTRU) in 2008 and joined your Residency for Residency Program (RRP) to learn all the things I did not know – which was everything. MTR only exists because of the lessons learned and relationships gained through those early experiences with UTRU/NCTR.
To your question regarding growth and sustainability, in our first years, the unwavering belief in our potential by then-Executive Director Anissa Listak and regular coaching from Elizabeth Kastiel sustained our very humble start with expertise, great advice and enthusiasm. They were our biggest, and possibly only, cheerleaders and coaches at the time. I’m grateful.
Since then, the many resources provided by NCTR have been and continue to be important and helpful. What first comes to mind are the Residency Standards (I forget the exact term) NCTR produced that named and defined residency best practices that were extremely beneficial to us developing an organizational structure aligned to what works. Your push for us to define our own “Vision for Effective Teaching” was a very helpful move forward… it required and developed a great deal more ownership for us of our own work. Language around the value of residency programs has contributed to our conversations with district and philanthropic leaders.
The opportunities to both present our learnings and hear from other programs’ practices at the annual symposium have contributed greatly to our work. Attendance at those is also a helpful encouragement for our staff. With BEI funding, we are able to do more strategic recruiting and offer resources to persons of color that have helped residents get here and stay here. And, of course, the Network provides access to meet people and make friends that are both professionally helpful but, even more importantly, bring a sense of humanity and joy to the hard work. And you cannot lose your joy in this work – or you’re sunk.
Thank you for all of that, and more!
Q: Is there a particular moment you’d like to highlight?
My first UTRU/NCTR training in a Denver hotel (June 2008) was a “moment.” I was grateful and excited to welcome Anissa Listak and Tamara Azar to our offices to share with the MTR family for our fifth anniversary celebration – which was kind of them to attend. We were so honored to host one of the NCTR Rounds for the Network in 2019, I believe. Really, any time we get some time with any collection of NCTR or residency program staff is a very positive “moment” for us.
Q: What are your plans/what is your hope for the next 15 years of the program?
Well, to be honest, I hope to retire within the next 15 years of the program… I turned 60 this year.
But seriously, my hope for the next 15 years would be that we could continue to financially afford and attract 40-50 residents annually who carry on our current levels of (on average) beneficial teacher effectiveness while filling schools with servant leaders of strong moral character. And I hope that any of our learnings and practices that work well would be seen, valued, and adopted among other institutions training teachers for our great city.
Also, we began the Memphis Literacy Institute in 2021 to train veteran teachers and offer schools research-based practices in literacy instruction. I hope that within 15 years, 90% of students in MLI partner schools will be reading on grade level – currently, only 23% of Memphis 3rd graders are.
Q: How have you celebrated or are you planning anything in celebration of your 15 years?
Great question! For celebrations are a necessary – not optional – part of life.
We have rebranded our marketing materials and logo to name 2024 as our 15th year. We created this really fun 15th year video that does a great job of displaying and celebrating our wonderful people through all the years. We are hosting a series of Home Gatherings for Memphians to come and hear the MTR history among their friends. We are publishing 15 stories of teachers (one from each class) to remind our larger family of the story and meaning of this work. We raffled off 15 gifts among our past or present MTR teachers (one per day) leading up to our anniversary on June 1, 2024. And we hosted a grand picnic (the MTR 15th anniversary Back-to-School Bash) where our founding Director of Education (Dr. Robin Henderson) returned to encourage our 430 teachers; Memphis Mayor Paul Young attended to thank our teachers; the Soulsville Charter School DrumLine entertained our teachers; and we passed out gifts to all of our teachers to say THANK YOU for 15 great years of service! We’ve had a great staff team plan this.
And, remember, all of this has been made possible because, back in 2008, there was this organization in Chicago that welcomed an outlier into their ranks and acted like I belonged. Thank you NCTR! And, I believe, the best is yet to come for us both…