Teacher Residencies and the Teacher Preparation Policy Landscape

• In Event: Disrupting Systemic Inequities: Why Teacher Residency Stipends Matter (and Are More Feasible Than You Think)

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective
Since 1983, when A Nation at Risk galvanized and gave voice to followers of Milton Freedman’s libertarian goal of dismantling public education in favor of vouchers, faith in public education has steadily eroded. The pervasive narrative in the intervening decades has been one of failure in public education and traditional teacher preparation, with attendant calls for market-based reforms to address the problems that “reformers” framed in ways that would facilitate adoption of their preferred policy options. The resulting policies have undermined the public education system, excluding questions of broader human and civic development that students need—and teachers need to be prepared to facilitate—if the nation is to find a way to heal our divisions and realize the vision of a just, equitable, democratic society.

Methods and Data
The framing for the session draws on existing economics of education literature, analysis of national data on teacher preparation, and documented experiences of national networks seeking to renew public education with the support of communities, educators, students, educational systems, and philanthropists.

Findings and Significance
For the past three decades, teacher pipeline literature has drawn on labor market theory, arguing that opening new pathways would attract more potentially good people into teaching and simultaneously drive down labor costs. Since the 2000’s, states have rapidly adopted policies for new pathways into teaching, with little emphasis on quality or clinical experience. In 2002, 8% of pathways were alternatives, with most requiring clinical practice; now more than 50% of all preparation programs are alternatives, and large numbers require little or no clinical practice before teaching. As more is learned about quality in teacher preparation and the impacts of alternative pathways, research has begun to indicate that those with strong clinical practice, like residencies, have positive impacts on the labor market; other pathways bring with them challenges of teacher turnover, which has significant economic and educational costs.

The field needs to reconceptualize teacher preparation in structurally radical ways in order for educators to have the capacity to take “educational responsibility” for the kinds of deeper learning outcomes that the nation’s schools need to support. Aspiring teachers need time to learn and reflect on their own lives and actions in order to be grounded educators who can navigate the complex ideological world we live in. Residency preparation can offer that—if they are high quality, equitably accessible, sustainable, and focused on justice and equity in addition to content pedagogy.

Author

• Cyrus Driver, National Public Education Support Fund