July 18, 2024 — The National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) released its annual report for 2023-2024. The report indicates how NCTR and teacher residency programs continue to grow and contribute to diversifying the teaching profession as well as the retention and effectiveness of teachers. Teacher residencies are district-serving teacher preparation programs that pair a rigorous full-year classroom experience with undergraduate or graduate education content and uniquely prepare effective, diverse, and culturally responsive teachers by reducing historical barriers to entry into the profession for teachers of color.
Data collected by NCTR shows that the 77 teacher residency programs operated by the 62 members in NCTR’s Network enrolled 2,225 teacher residents for the 2023-2024 academic year, with 67% of teacher residents identifying as a person of color. This surpasses the national percentage of teachers who identify as a person of color at 21%.
Teacher residency programs are helping to break down barriers into the teaching profession. By providing salaries, stipends, or scholarships that can help cover the costs of tuition, program and testing fees, and other costs associated with becoming a teacher, NCTR Network members make teaching more financially accessible for teacher residents, particularly teacher residents of color, to pursue and complete the program. Qualitative data from surveys of teacher residents enrolled in teacher residency programs of NCTR Network members conducted by NCTR further underscore the importance and impact of financial support.
“The realities of doing a full-time student teaching role and having to work a job to keep myself afloat financially was something that stopped me from pursuing my degree sooner. Because of the money, I have been able to really focus on my journey to be ready for next year on my own.” – NCTR Network Teacher Resident (2023-2024)
“I feel truly lucky to be a part of [the program]. I would not have been able to get myself financially through school and have a yearlong residency to prepare me.” – NCTR Network Teacher Resident (2023-2024)
Furthermore, teacher residency programs are supporting districts and students by effectively preparing teacher residents to teach in high-need areas, such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), emergent multilingual learning, and special education (SPED) services. Also, 79% of graduates from a teacher residency program in 2022-2023 were hired to teach in a Title I school, supporting 842 classrooms in Title I schools that were filled by 2022-2023 graduates from NCTR Network member programs.
Collectively, the data indicate that NCTR’s Network of teacher residency programs and teacher residents who spend a full year in the classroom learning from a mentor teacher are invaluable to the growth of school districts and communities throughout the United States.
“With residency graduates, I am getting a candidate who I know went through a rigorous program; and therefore, I know is prepared for classroom teaching.” – NCTR Network Residency Principal
“By having a full year of learning within a classroom, I had a much better perspective on how to start the year. It helped me to have a classroom management plan set in place, build relationships with students, become very data driven, and differentiate instruction effectively.” – NCTR Network Residency Graduate
“NCTR, and our participation in the BEI (Black Educators Initiative) grant, have helped us clarify our mission and approach to recruiting teachers of color. We have made tremendous strides in how we approach recruitment, the language we use, and our understanding of the needs of our candidates of color. This work couldn’t have been done without NCTR’s guidance and modeling.” – NCTR Network Member
For more information about NCTR’s 2023-2024 Annual Report, visit www.nctresidencies.org/annual-report, where you can also download a copy of the report.