A growing body of evidence across the country points to the fact teacher residencies work.
Last night, the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) Board voted 7-1 approving a five year, multi-million dollar contract to several teacher residency programs with a proven track record of success at a local and national level. These programs include: Dallas Teacher Residency, Urban Teachers, and, Relay Graduate School of Education. This vote signifies the Dallas ISD administration’s continued support of the teacher residency model.
The Board approval now allows each residency programs to expand its work with Dallas ISD to prepare upwards of 500 high quality graduate teacher candidates for the district’s highest need areas in the next five years.
Since 2013, DTR has worked in partnership with Dallas ISD and other North Texas districts to help recruit, develop, and support both novice and mentor teachers for high-need schools throughout the district. The efforts have helped support the growth and development of over 200 diverse, talented, and effective educators in over 20 elementary, middle and high school campuses throughout North Texas.
“Dallas ISD’s investment in the teacher residency model is a testament to their commitment to ensuring every child has access to a high quality and equitable education” said Dallas Teacher Residency Co-Founder and Executive Director, Elizabeth Kastiel. “We know that a classroom teacher is one of the single largest in-school levers that impacts student achievement – as a result, this is a huge win for future teachers and for students.
Teacher residencies are a model of teacher preparation based on the medical profession’s approach to preparing doctors—residents spend a full year clinical teaching and learning in classrooms alongside an excellent cooperating or mentor teacher to become an effective teacher. In addition, residents take coursework towards their graduate degree in teaching and teacher license.
In a recent analysis of the national impact of residency programs conducted by the National Center for Teacher Residencies, they found strong evidence that teacher residency programs are impacting student achievement and teacher retention, improving outcomes for high-need children.
DTR is excited to continue and deepen its relationship with Dallas ISD and help the critically important work of providing high quality educators, and thus high quality educational opportunities to the district’s students.
For more information on Dallas Teacher Residency and the teacher residency model, please visit www.dallastr.org.
ABOUT DTR
Dallas Teacher Residency (DTR) is a not-for-profit organization created to ensure that urban school students have access to well-trained and highly effective classroom teachers. Based in Dallas, DTR recruits, prepares and supports new teachers through a highly intensive and clinical rich apprenticeship, while also working alongside local urban school districts to meet their hiring needs. Through this innovative approach to teacher training, DTR aims to create both high-quality educators, in addition to creating support systems which ensure educators have the opportunity to impact levels of student academic achievement through teaching.
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