July 12, 2023 — The National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) is awarding $3.8 million in grants to 30 of its teacher residency members as part of NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative (BEI). NCTR’s BEI supports the recruitment, preparation, and retention of Black educators throughout the United States, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that students have access to a teacher who is ready on day one to improve student outcomes. Launched in 2019, BEI is a five-year, $20-million grant from Ballmer Group designed to recruit, develop, and retain 750 new Black teachers through NCTR’s national Network of teacher residency members. To date, NCTR’s BEI has supported over 900 Black teacher residents, exceeding its goal.
For 2023-2024, five new teacher residency programs are receiving grant funding (marked with an asterisk), as the initiative enters into its final year of its five-year grant:
- Alternative Pathways to Educator Certification Center at Columbia College
- AppleTree Early Learning Teacher Residency
- Black Educator Teacher Residency at CSU Bakersfield
- Boston Teacher Residency
- Carey Teacher Residency (William Carey University)
- Chicago Public Schools
- Clarkson University
- Collaborative Residency for Achievement and Equity (CREATE 65)
- Connecticut Teacher Residency Program
- CREATE Teacher Residency
- East Harlem Teaching Residency
- Educate ME Foundation’s Black Teacher Residency*
- Great Oaks Teacher Residency*
- Jackson Public Schools*
- Kansas City Teacher Residency
- LAUSD/UCLA/USC Residency Program Collaborative
- Louisville Teacher Residency Program*
- Marshall Teacher Residency*
- Memphis Teacher Residency
- Nashville Teacher Residency
- Norman Francis Teacher Residency
- Oakland Teacher Residency
- PEBC Teacher Residency
- Philadelphia Teacher Residency (Drexel-BLCS Residency)
- Project Inspire
- Richmond Teacher Residency (RTR, Virginia Commonwealth University)
- Seattle Teacher Residency
- South Cook Teacher Residency (Roosevelt University)
- St. Louis Teacher Residency
- University of St. Thomas/Saint Paul Urban Teacher Residency/Minneapolis Special Education Teacher Residency
“We are excited to continue the important work of NCTR’s BEI to recruit, prepare, and retain Black teacher residents with our teacher residency partners. We are especially excited to help fund five new teacher residencies this year to grow our BEI impact. Going into the final year of this initiative, BEI continues to address a national exigency to help ensure that students of color and low-income students have equitable access to Black educators who are effective, culturally responsive, and ready to teach from day one,” said NCTR’s CEO Kathlene H. Campbell, Ph.D.
“Research from the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University indicates that BEI teacher residencies are successful at attracting and retaining Black teacher residents. It’s an honor to support our teacher residency programs as they foster the development of Black teacher residents nationwide and work to achieve optimal educational outcomes for students,” said Director of BEI Keilani Goggins.
Thus far, investments in Black teacher residents through the BEI have resulted in:+
- Reducing barriers for aspiring Black educators to enter and remain in the teaching profession;
- Supporting recruitment pipelines that reflect the communities of color predominately served in Title I schools;
- Supporting mentor teachers, particularly mentors of color, to provide rigorous clinical preparation and coaching;
- Supporting programs to redesign and implement research-based practices that improve the recruitment, selection, preparation, and support experiences of Black educators; and
- Improving the teacher residency graduation rates for Black teacher candidates. For the 2021-2022 academic year and the first time ever, 94% of the graduates of teacher residency programs in NCTR’s Network identified as Black–the highest percentage among all racial and ethnic groups.
BEI is made possible by a grant from Ballmer Group. Read about the impact and growth of BEI by downloading NCTR’s latest BEI Annual Report: Igniting Change.