New Teacher Preparation
The “Residency” model
What matters most to students — and what most impacts their learning — are teachers. Boston, like many cities, has a high turnover rate among new teachers, which means that too many students lose precious time sitting in classrooms with teachers who are ill prepared to meet their needs.
The Boston Plan’s joint efforts with BPS in the area of new teacher development represent a smart strategy for recruiting and training new teachers who will stay in the classroom long enough to become effective. At the same time, the partners are engaged in new ways of thinking about career paths and teacher working conditions to keep the best people in the profession.
Over the past several years, the Boston Plan has invested heavily in studying patterns among new teachers in the BPS, including those who choose to leave, and has helped to launch two impressive initiatives — one local, and one national — that are changing teacher education.
Boston Teacher Residency (BTR)
Boston Teacher Residency recruits, prepares, and supports effective new teachers for the Boston Public Schools through an intensive “residency” in a public school classroom. Residents spend a full school year working side by side with a mentor teacher and taking courses and seminars aligned with Boston’s instructional improvement efforts. Residents receive an Initial Teaching License, a master’s degree from UMass/Boston, with tuition forgiven after three years of teaching in the Boston Public Schools. BTR's targetted recruitment efforts help the district to hire more teachers of color and fill high-need positions, including math and science.
Read more about BTR . . .
Urban Teacher Residencies Institute
The Urban Teacher Residencies Institute is a collaboration of three promising urban teacher preparation programs, including Boston Teacher Residency. UTR sites are working together to promote the teacher residency model, seek policy changes that support school-based teacher education programs, and help other cities to launch and develop their own residency programs.
Read more about UTR . . .
Research on New Teachers
Over several years, the Boston Plan has worked closely with the district's Office of Human Resources and Office of Professional Development to understand the experiences of teachers new to Boston and to implement improvements in the district's hiring, new teacher orientation, and induction processes. The Boston Plan conducts an annual survey of all new teachers, which informs collaborative conversations about necessary policy changes and ongoing revisions to the district's new teacher support system.