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This white paper frames both the case for and an approach to addressing persistent teacher quality, diversity, and turnover challenges in the State of New Mexico. A growing set of research and promising practice informs the report, which is intended to offer a high-level understanding of the complexities around how the economics of teacher preparation both drives educational inequities and can be shifted to promote educational quality and equity by investing in paid teacher residencies.

Explore principles that Prepared To Teach has surfaced as helpful for designing Registered Apprenticeship Programs for teacher residencies to promote and support high-quality teacher preparation systems.

Residencies are eligible for federal ESSER dollars. Using ESSER funding to establish residencies that address areas with high teacher turnover will result in long-term financial sustainability for residencies. In all cases, well-designed residencies will improve instruction and educational outcomes for students. Review the research base and logic model below.

Prepared To Teach focuses on creating financially accessible pathways to teaching for aspiring educators because research shows that limiting costs to candidates can make a difference for schools, teachers, and students. Unlike other professional programs, teacher preparation includes few opportunities to earn while learning. By restructuring teacher preparation to be similar to medicine, we can alleviate financial burdens for students and recruit a more diverse, committed teaching workforce. This two-page document breaks down the potential of funded residencies to address these issues with point-by-point citations from the research.

This animated PowerPoint presentation shows different models for integrating aspiring teachers into the classroom to help with instruction while furthering their own learning. With more than a dozen examples, it's a helpful starting point for partnerships seeking to shift towards a more cohesive P-20 education system. The presentation includes voiceovers and timed animations. You can choose to present without these if you'd prefer. Settings are in the slideshow tab of PowerPoint.

Shael Polakow-Suranksy, GSE ’00, President of Bank Street College, and Karen DeMoss, Executive Director of Prepared To Teach, joined US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona for a fireside chat. During this important conversation, Cardona laid out his vision for supporting educators across the country and elevating the teaching profession before an audience of teachers and teacher candidates.

A high-level overview of the case for and to achieve a pathway to universal residencies nationwide can inform and clarify policy discussions at the U.S. Department of Education.

Reduction—one of our 3 R's of Sustainably Funded Teacher Preparation—helps universities maximize access to financial aid sources and minimize costs associated with quality programs. The Affordability Imperative focuses on making excellent teacher preparation affordable, spotlighting programs that successfully implement strategies to reduce costs to aspiring teachers.

Supporting aspiring educators during preparation is essential. The field is ready to embrace shifts that will make teacher preparation more uniformly strong, sustainable, and equitably accessible—investments in preparation will make such shifts possible. There is a case for a renewed commitment to excellent teacher preparation, made possible by federal investments.

Reallocation—one of our 3 R's of Sustainably Funded Teacher Preparation—helps partnerships redesign work roles to better support preparation efforts and to allow candidates to earn compensation during their clinical practice. Simple Shifts shares ways residents can bring value to the classroom and how districts and programs have leveraged the skills of aspiring teachers.

(Re)Investment—one of our 3 R's of Sustainably Funded Teacher Preparation—helps districts find ways to make shifts that can permanently embed residency funding into local budgets. The Residency Revolution is about identifying and maximizing the savings a high-quality residency program can bring to a district.

Teacher residency models have proven impact on four persistent teacher quality challenges: attracting strong candidates, teaching key skills, preparing for high-needs positions, and retaining talent. Prepared To Teach helps districts and preparation programs harness local strengths to develop residencies that meet their needs by preparing excellent, committed teachers.

Sharing partnership-focused learning across 12 teacher residency partnership sites during the 2019-2020 school year, Prepared To Teach reports on the development and co-constructed activities facilitated in its National Learning Network. These include highlights in six areas: sustainability, partnership development, program redesign, supporting school improvement, mentor development, and resident learning. doi.org/10.61625/XULY7940

To learn how teacher residencies across California fund their innovative work, the Learning Policy Institute and Prepared To Teach partnered to examine the current state of practice around residency sustainability. California teacher residencies with known financial sustainability efforts leverage local resources to support residents and mentor teachers. These concrete examples of creative residency funding strategies are meant to help California’s new investments in teacher residencies become sustainable over time.