Boston Teacher Residency

There is one educational reform that we know works: good teaching. Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) recruits highly talented people from diverse backgrounds who are committed to becoming urban teachers and provides them with a year of intense learning that is based in the classroom. Residents commit to teach in Boston for three years, and BTR supports its graduates over that period as they develop from novice teacher to teacher-leader.

BTR is raising the quality of new teachers in the city’s schools through its medical residency model and is leading the way nationally in improving how teachers are educated. BTR co-founded Urban Teacher Residency United to support the replication of the residency model in cities across the nation. 

How it works

Residents spend four days a week in a classroom, working closely with a mentor teacher. They also take courses that are designed and led by Boston educators on Fridays, after school, and during two summers.

Graduates of the program earn a Massachusetts Initial Teacher Licensure in their primary content area, partial credit toward dual licensure in special education, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts Boston. The costs of the program are forgiven through a three-year commitment to teach in the Boston Public Schools.

For more details and to hear what BTR’s graduates, mentor teachers, and instructors have to say, visit: www.bostonteacherresidency.org

Why it matters

Many urban districts struggle with a similar challenge: recruiting, preparing, and retaining effective teachers. BTR addresses this challenge in an innovative way, placing teacher preparation in classrooms, rather than in schools of education. Residents are immersed in the reality of urban teaching for a full year, and the curriculum they study is grounded in the day-to-day experience of teaching.

BTR has prepared 236 BPS teachers since it was founded in 2003. BTR is currently preparing 75 teachers and plans to grow to prepare 120 teachers per year, roughly 30% of the total teachers Boston hires each year. This critical mass of like-minded, effective teachers will be well equipped to improve outcomes for Boston students. The schools that host residents and hire clusters of BTR graduates are already seeing a positive impact on instruction and professional culture. In time, this impact will spread.

Boston Teacher Residency is a joint effort of the Boston Public Schools and Boston Plan for Excellence.