Urban teacher residencies

A report on urban teacher residencies (UTRs), designed to improve teacher quality in urban schools, was published this month by the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program and the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ).

...(UTRs) are an emerging innovation designed to embody best practices in recruitment, screening, preparation, placement, induction, and teacher leadership for urban school districts. As such, UTRs can be a key element of urban districts’ portfolio of pathways into teaching and a lynchpin of a larger strategy to strengthen the districts’ human capital system.

Core policy principles of UTRs include:

• the selective recruitment of highly qualified candidates
• the expectation that teachers are extensively prepared before they begin to teach
• a focus on meeting the needs of high-needs school districts
• high-quality support for graduates after they become teachers

The report examined two UTR programs, the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) in Chicago and the Boston Teacher Residency (BTR). The Urban Teacher Residency Institute (UTRI) was recently established to assist districts considering starting UTR programs.

Creating and Sustaining Urban Teacher Residencies: A New Way to Recruit, Prepare, and Retain Effective Teachers in High-Needs Districts (pdf, 40pp/740kB), August 2008