Going Back to School: For Students and Teachers!

Backpacks are full, lunches are packed and classrooms have been newly decorated. All across the U.S. students are going back to school – their pencils are sharpened ready to take notes as they gear up for state mandated tests later in the year. Educators hope that this is once again the start of a year where their respective school makes AYP and sees significant increases in student achievement levels. Of great concern are the nation’s lowest performing schools. These schools typically have high concentrations of inexperienced teachers who are too often unprepared for the challenges they face. The teacher dropout rate is often higher than the student dropout rate. These struggling schools rarely close the teaching quality gap, let alone the student achievement gap, because they are constantly rebuilding their staff. As teachers head for the exits they cite poor preparation, insufficient classroom support, and inadequate opportunities for career advancement.

With huge numbers of young teachers leaving the profession, it’s obvious that we need to make some drastic changes – including how we attract and prepare candidates to the ways that we support and develop their strengths/skills. A good place to start is with teacher preparation. If our K-12 students are to develop 21st century skills necessary for success in a global economy, their teachers need 21st century teaching skills. We need world class teacher preparation programs—a good model to replicate are the teaching residencies found in places like Boston, Chicago, Montclair, N.J., Long Beach, CA and Washington, D.C. Teaching residency programs build effective teams of teacher candidates who observe and work alongside veteran teachers in specially selected training academies. The candidates integrate their daily classroom experiences with what they are learning from formal teacher education courses that are held on-site at their academy. By learning and working in teams, similar to the medical residency model, candidates come out prepared to “hit the ground running” when they take on their own classrooms.

The teaching residency model also allows teacher candidates to become familiar with the needs of the school community/district they will work in and gain invaluable insight from outstanding, veteran teachers on how to work through teaching challenges. This model is working in urban areas, and has great promise for rural districts where isolation can be a barrier to attracting , training, and retaining top-notch teachers.

Do you think the teaching residency model is the answer to teacher preparation programs?