August 28, 2024 — The National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) is awarding $5.9 million in grants to 29 teacher residency programs as part of NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative (BEI). NCTR’s BEI supports the recruitment, preparation, and retention of diverse educators who reflect the communities they serve 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 was initially supported by a five-year, $20-million grant from Ballmer Group to recruit, prepare, and retain 750 new Black teachers through NCTR’s national network of teacher residency members. In its initial five-year run, BEI surpassed its goal, supporting more than 1,300 Black teacher residents toward becoming educators. BEI will continue its work for another five years with a new philanthropic commitment of $40 million.
Phase 2 of the initiative will continue the work of Phase 1 by directing funds toward innovative programming focused on the recruitment, preparation, and the eventual hiring and retention of 2,400 additional diverse educators. Phase 2 will continue BEI’s commitment to its core mission of supporting and empowering teacher residents from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities who are in reflection of the students in the schools the teacher residents will serve.
“We are excited to continue the important work of NCTR’s BEI, which plays a crucial role in fostering diversity and inclusion within schools,” said Keilani Goggins, managing director of BEI. “BEI continues to address a national exigency to help ensure that students of color and students from historically undersupported communities have equitable access to educators who are diverse, effective, culturally responsive, and ready to teach from day one.”
BEI is pleased to report that the following teacher residency programs have been awarded BEI grant funding (residency programs new to BEI are marked with an asterisk) for 2024-2025, as the initiative enters Phase 2:
- Alternative Pathways to Educator Certification Center (APEC) at Columbia College
- Arizona Teacher Residency*
- Black Educator Teacher Residency (BETR) at CSU Bakersfield
- Boston Teacher Residency
- Carey Teacher Residency (William Carey University)
- Chicago Public Schools
- Connecticut Teacher Residency Program
- Delaware State University*
- East Harlem Teaching Residency
- Educate ME Foundation’s Black Teacher Residency
- Georgia State University CREATE Project
- Great Oaks Teacher Residency
- IndyTeach*
- Jackson Public Schools
- Marshall Teacher Residency
- Memphis Teacher Residency
- Mississippi State University*
- Nashville Teacher Residency
- Norman Francis Teacher Residency
- Oakland Teacher Residency
- Old Dominion University Teacher in Residence Program (ODU)
- PEBC Teacher Residency
- Philadelphia Teacher Residency (Drexel-BLCS Residency)
- Project Inspire Teacher Residency
- Richmond Teacher Residency (RTR, Virginia Commonwealth University)
- Seattle Teacher Residency
- St. Louis Teacher Residency
- The Educator Academy
- University of St. Thomas – Saint Paul Urban Teacher Residency, Minneapolis Special Education Teacher Residency, and Charter Residency
Thus far, investments in teacher residents through BEI have resulted in:
- Reducing barriers for aspiring 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 diverse educators; and
- Improving the teacher residency graduation rates for teacher candidates, particularly Black teacher candidates.
Read about the impact and growth of BEI by downloading the BEI Annual Report: Empowering Excellence that provides data from Year 4.