Teacher Residency as Alternative Pathway to Licensure

Abstract

Teacher residencies have been an ongoing discussion in the educator preparation world for nearly a decade. This paper describes a promising practice in program design at a university that offers alternative pathways to licensure to meet the demands of school districts, especially in economically disadvantaged communities in one region of the United States. The one-year residency model was developed to address the teacher shortage in a state with growing teacher attrition. Aligned with recent legislation that created a residency license, a traditional educator preparation program examined its strengths and incorporated the most critical needs for novice teacher success to offer a one-year teacher residency as an alternative pathway. The residency model was co-constructed with school district personnel and teacher education faculty to focus on the most critical dimensions of teaching that include planning, instruction, and assessment. After one year, the feedback from school district personnel included high favor for readiness to teach. Residency candidates reported increased self-efficacy. The residency program has implications for future research and potential replication at other institutions of higher education.

Exploring a Teacher Residency as a Recruitment and Retention Strategy for High-Need Districts

“…Namely, missing is how districts recruit and support residents as well as the residents' experience within the TRP. The district perspective has been explored within larger, urban settings (i.e., Boston Teacher Residency; Chicago's Academy for Urban School Leadership), but many of these studies report on the logistics rather than the experience of those involved (e.g., Yun & DeMoss, 2020;Zugelder et al, 2021). The exceptions have examined facets of the residency experience including resident (Chu, 2021) and mentor teacher (Chu, 2019) identity development.…”

School Leaders of High-Need Districts and Their Perspectives of a University-Based Teacher Residency Program

“…Although existing research on residencies helps to describe the need, theory, and purpose of residencies (Gist, 2021;Klein et al, 2013), there remains the need for deeper examination of how multiple stakeholders participate in the process; specifically, how districts recruit and support residents as well as the residents' experience within the TRP. The district-perspective has been explored within larger, urban settings, but many studies focus on the logistics of such models (e.g., Zugelder et al, 2021) or identity development (Chu, 2019(Chu, , 2021 instead of the experience of those involved.…”