The power and potential of teacher residencies

Teacher residency programs (modeled after the clinical residency model in medical training) show great promise in helping local school systems build a highly capable and diverse teaching workforce. Jointly run by districts and nearby universities, these programs recruit teaching candidates, pair them with carefully selected mentor teachers, and give them a gradual introduction to classroom instruction while simultaneously moving them through a graduate-level course of study. While such programs are not yet widespread — since the first residency was launched in 2001, roughly 50 others have been created nationwide — early research findings suggest they provide an effective means of recruiting, preparing, supporting, and retaining excellent teachers.