Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) named one of 50 finalists for Innovation in American Government Award

BPS's teacher preparation program, BTR is managed by the Boston Plan for Excellence. Now training its fifth cohort of new teachers, who are taking part in a year-long "residency" in a school, BTR has placed more than 130 graduates in the BPS since September 2004.

Click here for the  press release from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a list of other finalists from across the country.

BTR makes national "Ten Best" list

Boston's innovative teacher preparation program is featured in the November issue of Edutopia magazine, published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. A program of the Boston Public Schools and the Boston Plan for Excellence, BTR got high marks for placing aspiring teachers in a school for a full year's "residency" and customizes their training to the BPS's priorities.

Click here for the magazine. Click here for video clips.

Pilot Schools: What Others Can Learn

A new report on pilot high schools by the Center for Collaborative Education details their success at improving academic performance and engaging students. In a companion piece, BPE Executive Director Ellen Guiney adds another characteristic apparent to visitors of many pilot schools: trust between and among students and teachers. It's a prerequisite, she argues, both to learning for students and adults and to school improvement.
Click here to read "What All Schools Can Learn from Boston's Pilot Schools."

The Parthenon Group: Who are BPS dropouts? What factors indicate that a student is at risk of dropping out?

Commissioned and released by the BPS and funded by the Gates Foundation, the report has some startling findings about dropouts from the Class of 2004, as well as the number of potential dropouts now in the city's high schools. The district's link below has the press release, the report (PowerPoint), and two related reports. BPE's link below has only a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation by the Parthenon Group, which comprises the report.

BPS: Press release, PowerPoint presentation, and related reports

BPE: PDF of The Parthenon Group report.

BPE in the news

Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) made Edutopia magazine's list of ten best teacher preparation programs, and was featured in the November issue. The magazine, a publication of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, also posted video of BTR residents on its website.Click here for the magazine. Click here for the videos.

A Boston Globe story on special student admissions procedures used by many pilot and charter schools cited statistics compiled by the Boston Plan: where students who score in the lowest quartile on MCAS tests are assigned to school for grade 9. Click here and here for the Globe story. Click here for school-by-school charts.

Neema Avashia, Boston teacher and graduate of Boston Teacher Residency, is quoted in a New York Times article on the long-term effect of Harry Potter books on students' reading habits. Click here for the story.

Senator Barack Obama and Representative Rahm Emanuel, both from Illinois, have co-ponsored legislation to make teacher-residencies eligible for federal funds for teacher training. The legislation is based on teacher-residency models in Chicago, Denver, and here — Boston Teacher Residency, which is a a program of the Boston Public Schools and the Boston Plan for Excellence.

Click here for the press release.

Click here for the legislation.

The BPE-developed formative assessment for reading, FAST-R, garnered a four-page spread in Education Week, May 2, 2007. The feature, "Home-Grown Tests Measure Core Critical-Reading Skills," reported on BPE's data coach Paula Morgado and her work with teachers at the Winship Elementary School. Click here. (Registration required.)

Future BPS teacher Ver-Nard Fernandes was profiled in a story on Boston Teacher Residency in the Bay State Banner's January 11, 2007, issue. He's doing his year-long residency in a grade 3 classroom at the Mason Elementary School. Click here.

One of the founders of the new national Coalition of Urban Teacher Residencies, Boston Teacher Residency was noted in a November 1, 2006, Education Week story on the coalition. Click here.

FAST-R was also detailed in the Harvard Education Letter, Nov-Dec 2006. Click here.

An article written by BPE staff on FAST-R's use by teachers was also the lead story in ASCD Express on July 13, 2006. Click here.

Principal For A Day Marjorie Arons-Barron had an op-ed about her experiences published in the Boston Globe on December 5, 2006. Click here.

Education Week's Jeff Archer focused on several local education funds, including the Boston Plan for Excellence, in "Some Districts, Outside Groups Have Inside Track" in the November 29, 2006, edition. Click here.