Teacher residency: Growing and diversifying the profession

Connecticut’s grow-your-own teacher preparation program is expanding the pool of teacher candidates and giving more aspiring teachers a path to achieving their dreams.

For decades, the number of people graduating from traditional teacher preparation programs has been steadily declining. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2021) data indicate that the number of students graduating from college with bachelor’s degrees in education shrank from 176,307 graduates in 1970-71 to 85,058 in 2019-20. At the same time, the teacher workforce is significantly less diverse than the population of students attending public schools. In the 2020-21 school year, about 80% of U.S. K-12 public school teachers were non-Hispanic white, while the number of white students in public schools is less than 47% (NCES, 2022). In Connecticut, that disparity is even starker as nearly 90% of teachers are white and more than 51% of students identify as people of color (EdSight, n.d.).

This demographic disconnect should sound alarms across the education community. Ethnic and racial diversity among teachers and administrators adds positive value for students, evident in more equitable approaches to student discipline (Hughes et al., 2020); greater representation of students of color in gifted programs (Grissom, Rodriguez, & Kern, 2017); and improved student performance (Partee, 2014).

Teachers of color have not always been so scarce. Leslie Fenwick (2022) documents how Black teacher and principal leadership suffered as a result of Southern anti-integration resistance to the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. During court-ordered desegregation efforts, Black schools were gradually closed, and Black students slowly integrated into white schools. Because so many white schools would not hire Black educators, more than 100,000 Black educators were dismissed or demoted.

Today, teachers of color continue to be underrepresented in schools. And those who do enter the profession often face racialized experiences; take on additional labor as advocates, representatives, and mentors for marginalized populations; and are passed over for leadership opportunities, all of which lead teachers of color to leave the profession faster than their white counterparts (Kohli, 2018).

The public school system is still grappling with the loss of Black teachers and the important roles they played in their communities. This context is important as we seek solutions to both the national teacher shortage and the lack of diversity in the profession.

The grow-your-own solution

One way to connect schools with local, diverse talent is through grow-your-own (GYO) teacher preparation programs. Beginning as early as high school, GYO programs aim to recruit students into the teaching profession. Some programs offer alternate routes to teacher certification that target college graduates from diverse professional backgrounds. However, these programs do not always explicitly target teachers of color.

To attract candidates of color, GYO programs need to explicitly highlight:

why they are desperately needed as our future teachers — not only because of their racial or ethnic membership, but also because of their lived experiences and deep understanding of their home communities that need them the most. (Bianco & Marin-Paris, 2019, p. 39)

Teachers of color have high retention rates when they go through GYO programs that are grounded in grassroots racial and justice movements and that develop structures and strategies to help them circumvent the challenges and obstacles they face (Gist, Bianco, & Lynn, 2019).

Sparked by the well-documented, alarming statistics around teacher training, retention, and diversity, the Connecticut Teacher Residency Program (CT-TRP) uses a comprehensive approach to recruit, train, and retain teachers of color. It explicitly focuses on recruiting teachers of color, removing barriers to certification, delivering an academic and residency program centered on social justice and anti-racism, and supporting graduate retention through continued mentorship and professional development. As a result, the program is avoiding the pitfalls of GYO programs that recruit college graduates but lack a focus on the cultural wealth within local communities and other programs that recruit teachers of color but not necessarily to teach in their local communities (Gist, Bianco, & Lynn, 2019).

A new approach to teacher certification

The Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) is one of six Regional Education Service Centers in Connecticut. It operates 18 innovative theme-based magnet schools created as a result of the 1996 Sheff v. O’Neill case, which sought to desegregate Hartford schools. Before the inception of CT-TRP in 2019, the teaching staff of the CREC Magnet Schools was 87% white, serving a student body that was 75% Black and Hispanic.

Previous attempts to recruit diverse staff included visiting and hiring candidates from historically Black colleges and universities and from Puerto Rico, as well as partnering with local universities to mentor up-and-coming education majors. But the district had limited success in retaining the candidates who came to the area through these efforts. Superintendent Tim Sullivan suggested a novel approach:

We recognized that there was a pool of talented and committed adults who believe in children that could not gain access to the teaching profession unless some institutional obstacles were removed. We believed that removing those obstacles would give our students access to a more diverse group of teachers who would help to shape the perceptions of future generations in a profoundly positive way.

A steering committee began working to create a certification pathway that would remove barriers to teaching for noncertified staff in CREC schools.

The original steering committee, made up predominantly of educators of color, recognized that the skills, perspectives, and positive contributions of noncertified school staff in the CREC Magnet Schools were valuable assets. They then considered what skills, content, and pedagogy teachers needed and created a GYO pathway that enabled current noncertified staff to make their way through the myriad state requirements for becoming a certified teacher. “The TRP program allows a pathway for professionals to rediscover their passion for education, serve the community, and add diversity to the classrooms,” said current CT-TRP resident Arvelys Silverio.

CT-TRP actively recruits candidates from any racial or ethnic background who have a passion for working with children, experience working with marginalized communities, and a demonstrated commitment to diversity in education. Most candidates are recruited from noncertified staff working in partner school districts and those working and living in the community. District partners enlist principals, human resources professionals, and parent groups to identify individuals who have the above qualifications, a bachelor’s degree, and a desire to become a certified teacher. For districts, this is one way to “grow their own.” Additionally, CT-TRP recruits across racially and ethnically diverse communities for career changers or other noncertified staff not currently employed within a partner district. Candidates “at-large,” once accepted, will be matched with a nearby partner district who will sponsor them for the residency year and support them during their three-year commitment to teach in the district. To date, 95% of the 107 CT-TRP residents and teachers identify as people of color.

The program seeks to balance preparation for mandated high-stakes assessments with development of pedagogical and subject-matter knowledge, while centering equity and maximizing access. Courses were designed and are taught by skilled practitioners working in K-12 schools as teachers, instructional coaches, supervisors, and administrators. These instructors are committed to the program’s vision of intentionally disrupting current systems of inequity and amplifying marginalized voices. We want future teachers to build an interdisciplinary understanding of pedagogy and content taught in elementary schools through a curriculum focused on project-based learning, cognitively guided and explicit instruction, restorative approaches to classroom culture and climate, asset-based frameworks for understanding families and culture, meeting the needs of exceptional learners, and culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching practices. Throughout the program, residents and their instructors reflect on their educational backgrounds and experiences while learning how to encourage all students to think critically and understand their value (Hammond & Jackson, 2015).

CT-TRP residents take these courses as part of a full-year residency model in which they also work alongside a mentor teacher in the district, while receiving pay and benefits. After the one-year residency, they are assigned their own classroom, receiving mentoring and induction support for three additional years. Manjari Bhoovaragavaswamy, a CT-TRP resident, said, “I strongly believe that this program will guide me with all the necessary skill sets required to learn diverse strategies for teaching, classroom management, and what works and what does not work in teaching.”

Beginning with an orientation during the summer, the mentor teacher and resident connect and formulate a plan for the start of the school year. Once the school year begins, residents work alongside their mentor teachers, learning about every aspect of the teaching role by planning and implementing lessons, attending planning and placement team meetings, participating in home-school connection events, and joining faculty meetings. The mentor teacher models their own best practices and gradually releases responsibility for certain activities to the resident over several months. The goal is for residents to integrate their classroom experiences with the content and reflections from their courses to develop their own authentic teaching style.

Mentoring in a full-year residency program is a bigger commitment than hosting a student teacher for 12-16 weeks, and CT-TRP mentors receive in-depth training beyond the state-required training for cooperating teachers. Mentors attend a two-day orientation that overlaps with the resident orientation so they can begin to build relationships and understand program expectations around planning, co-teaching, and using observation and feedback. Additionally, mentors attend monthly full-day training sessions to strengthen their skills in all areas of the role.

Removing the barriers

Because one of the goals of the CT-TRP was to improve teacher diversity, it was important to consider the barriers that people with historically marginalized identities face on the path to becoming certified educators. The team identified three main challenges:

The cost of traditional preparation programs.
The loss of income during student teaching.
High-stakes certification assessments.

Cost barriers

Because cost is a significant barrier, CREC established a zero-cost tuition model for residents, paid residents for their work in schools, and covered the cost of laptops and books. The district also provided stipends to instructors and paid Marlene Megos, then the assistant superintendent, and Ushawnda Mitchell, a teacher on special assignment, to manage the program.

To ensure the program’s growth and sustainability, the team knew they’d need a multipronged funding approach. They counted on seed funding from the CREC, began seeking grants from such groups as the New Schools Venture Fund, and rallied behind testimony advocating for public funding during Connecticut legislative sessions. Currently, several grants, funds from the Regional Educational Service Center, partner district revenues, and federal funds cover the operational costs and direct benefits to residents.

Partner districts contract with CT-TRP to host candidates and are obligated to hire and pay CT-TRP residents during the residency year. In return, the resident commits to teach in the district for a minimum of three years. Each resident receives a minimum of $28,000 during the school year and an additional $2,000 stipend each summer to offset any loss of income from participating in full-time coursework and the yearlong residency experience. For graduate Karen Adenekan, this help was essential:

I was a parent for the last 15, almost 20, years assisting teachers. I saw a lot of things that were really great, but I always wanted to just get up in front of the class but just couldn’t do it, you know? It was just the obstacles, that financially I just couldn’t take the time off.

The salary, aligned with a living wage, demonstrates partner districts’ commitment to a GYO approach and provides a one-year safety net (with the promise of a teacher’s salary in year two) and an incentive for residents to persevere in the program.

Assessment barriers

To become elementary teachers in Connecticut, teacher candidates are currently required to pass seven standardized assessments: the Praxis I basic skills assessment, Praxis II in four subject areas, Foundations of Reading, and the edTPA portfolio. Beyond the typical challenges associated with high-stakes assessments in an accelerated program, many CT-TRP candidates face the prospect of testing bias. Research indicates that candidates identifying as Black or Latinx typically score lower on teacher certification exams than their white counterparts (Motamedi, Leong, & Hanson, 2018).

The CT-TRP requires a Praxis pre-test on admission and uses the results of this and subsequent diagnostics to guide decisions about support and supplemental instruction in the core courses, to develop study groups during cohort meetings, and to provide specialized tutoring and assessment preparation sessions over 18 months. Residents take the standardized assessments for the second time at the culmination of content-specific methods courses and can continue to retake the test if needed during their first three years of teaching while serving under a Residency Educator Certificate.

The CT-TRP makes many efforts to address the realities of existing assessment challenges. However, the program’s leaders also seek to influence policy so that assessment requirements become more flexible, authentic, reasonable, and culturally and linguistically sustaining in ways that accurately reflect candidates’ readiness to lead Connecticut classrooms.

Building cultural competence

A district’s desire to hire candidates of color does not necessarily match its readiness to do so. Coaching conversations with CT-TRP candidates have revealed a need to think critically with district partners about district and school climate and building leadership, especially as it relates to cultivating a space where students and teachers of color have a sense of belonging. Studies have shown that building leaders who actively work to create an inclusive environment have better retention rates (Carver-Thomas, 2018).

CT-TRP partner districts and principals complete an equity self-assessment and participate in training opportunities and regular check-ins that focus on anti-bias and anti-racist practices, creating inclusive environments, and finding ways to support CT-TRP teacher candidates. Our mentor teachers engage in ongoing cultural competency training as well. After the June 2022 mentor orientation, one participant noted:

I don’t ever think that I will be done growing in the cultural aspect. I am constantly having “ahas” and looking for ways to push and challenge my thinking. . . . I am personally looking for ways to make my classroom one that is culturally responsive and equitable.

Racial microaggressions are prevalent in cross-cultural conversations. These verbal, behavioral, and environmental insults, invalidations, and indignities that white people direct toward people of color, sometimes without being aware of their impact, have the power to create mistrust between partners in a mentoring relationship (Sue et al., 2007). Given that the overwhelming majority of CT-TRP mentors are white women mentoring residents of color, we sought to mitigate the impact of racial microaggressions by developing cross-cultural mentor competencies. These competencies help mentors understand common patterns in cross-cultural relations, acknowledge the importance of culture, maintain vigilance in recognizing the dynamics that result from cultural differences, expand their cultural knowledge, and increase their capacity to make adjustments to meet the cultural needs of their residents (Cross, 1988).

A district’s desire to hire candidates of color does not necessarily match its readiness to do so. Coaching conversations with CT-TRP candidates have revealed a need to think critically with district partners about district and school climate and building leadership, especially as it relates to cultivating a space where students and teachers of color have a sense of belonging.

The competencies that undergird the mentor training feature prominently in the training for the residents as well. Mentors participate in sessions designed to increase self-awareness of their own racial biases and stereotypes while learning to manage their defensiveness around issues of race. Additionally, residents participate in sessions intended to reduce the impact of internalized racism that often affects people of color whose merit is continually challenged and to provide space for them to share their experiences as people of color in predominantly white spaces.

While the recruitment practices, curricula, and faculty of traditional teacher preparation programs tend to perpetuate the norms of the dominant white culture (Ball, 2022), CT-TRP places cultural competence at its core. As a result, mentors and residents are positioned to revise and transform the normalized practices of teaching away from a focus on whiteness, and instead foster teaching practices that are culturally responsive to communities.

From recruitment to retention

Recruitment is critical to ensuring the teacher workforce reflects the student population, but having the proper support in place to keep teachers in education is equally important. The CT-TRP is designed to not only recruit teachers of color but also support them during their first three years serving as a classroom teacher. Beginning teachers who participate in some kind of induction have higher satisfaction, commitment, and retention and are more likely to implement best practices, use effective classroom management strategies, and create an overall positive classroom environment (Schwan et al., 2020).

After completing a yearlong residency, residents transition to first-year teachers where the challenge of leading their own classroom begins. To support candidates during this year, the CT-TRP provides each candidate a sponsor teacher. The sponsor teacher has a non-evaluative mentorship role that includes providing psychological safety, offering assistance in implementing best practices, and encouraging ongoing professional and personal growth. The sponsor meets with the new teacher regularly and is on call as questions arise. The goal is to ensure that, as residents transition to teaching, they have support and the tools needed for a successful first year.

In addition to a sponsor teacher, the CT-TRP also offers professional development and social opportunities for residents in their first three years of teaching to meet, network, and share best practices and experiences. For example, monthly affinity group meetings provide a safe space for residents of color to come together, share their experiences, and discuss important topics. One member shared, “I really benefit from the conversations that help me to think deeper about my role in education. It provides me with added motivation to continue in this profession. Our conversations remind me that teachers of color matter.” The CT-TRP also offers opportunities for graduates to attend professional development workshops for continuous growth. The program seeks the input of graduates to determine what support they need and tailors professional development opportunities to that end.

Advancing the mission

Teacher residencies and GYO programs similar to CT-TRP are providing a pathway into the field of education for candidates of color that is resulting in high retention rates (Carver-Thomas, 2018). After the rapid growth of the CT-TRP, from one cohort in one district in 2019 to four cohorts across 27 Connecticut partner districts in three years, the CT-TRP seeks to transform schools in Connecticut and beyond, one teacher at a time.

Today, 65 CT-TRP graduates, more than 90% of whom identify as people of color, are serving as culturally sustaining teachers in Connecticut public schools. We’re seeing a growing demand for partnerships and expansion, and our current cohort of 42 residents is the largest number to be enrolled in the program. By providing continual attention and support to the network of program participants and alumni and by engaging partners and stakeholders in conversations about race, equity, and inclusion, CT-TRP aspires to not only increase the diversity of our teacher candidates, but also transform the culture, systems, and curricula in schools. Ultimately, we aim to disrupt systems of inequity and create inclusive cultures for students and educators in public schools.

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This article appears in the May 2023 issue of Kappan, Vol. 104, No. 8, pp. 6-11.