Teaching Residency Programs: A Multisite Look at a New Model to Prepare Teachers for High-Need Schools

In 2008, Congress created the Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program to fund alternative training programs that draw highly qualified teachers to high-need schools. Funded under this grant, teaching residency programs (TRPs) are designed to attract new teachers to the profession. The programs offer coursework toward a master’s degree along with a one-year supervised residency under the guidance of a full-time teacher. New participants in all TRPs also could accept a stipend for committing to teach in the same district for at least three years. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, selected Mathematica Policy Research to examine the characteristics of 30 different TRPs and their current and former participants. Researchers studied components such as required coursework, teacher backgrounds and experiences, and teacher retention. Among its key findings, the study revealed that the retention rates of novice TRP teachers were roughly the same as those of their peers who entered the profession through different programs. For example, 92 percent of the former remained in the same district, compared with 90 percent of the latter.