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With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, even greater efforts are needed to address students' academic and social emotional needs, all the while making up for learning loss and preparing for the unpredictable combinations of distance learning, blended learning, and in-classroom learning. These expectations, along with the need for greater emphasis on equity-focused teaching and learning have raised the bar for educators and for educator preparation. This paper explores what policymakers and educators can do to support educators in meeting the social emotional and academic needs of students. These strategies include investing in high-quality educator preparation, transforming educator professional learning opportunities to match current needs, supporting mentoring and the development of new teacher roles, and creating time for educators to collaborate with each other and key partners. These actions are vital for navigating teaching and learning during the pandemic and beyond.

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.

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