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This growing school district - which serves more than 45,000 PK-12 students, 92% of whom are Hispanic and 70% of whom are low-income - has worked closely with the university in a shared governance structure over the last four years to co-design and iterate upon a year-long residency for teacher candidates. The residency pilot began in 2019-2020 with six undergraduate teacher candidates placed in the district, all of whom were paid by local philanthropic sources. In 2022-2023, the district hosted more than 50 paid residents - more than 80% of whom were Hispanic - who were employed as substitute teachers while completing their residency. This approach to funding the residency was part of a “strategic staffing” model piloted by the district in 2021-2022, where districts reallocate resources internally in order to finance year-long residents who help fill critical staffing needs while completing their clinical experience (Dennis & DeMoss, 2021; Texas Education Agency, 2023; US PREP, 2022).
This presentation will examine the impact of the year-long residency and strategic staffing experience on resident graduates hired by the district. Analysis will focus primarily on two cohorts of beginning teachers: those prepared in 2021-2022 (n=13) and 2022-2023 (n= 21). Data sources include: (1) first-year teacher performance based on scores from administrative evaluation using the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) rubric; (2) benchmark student achievement outcomes for students taught by residency graduates; and (3) year-to-year retention of residency-prepared teachers in the district.
Findings from the 2021-2022 cohort show that resident graduates (n=13) outperformed other first-year teachers in the district (n=21) on all 12 dimensions of the state evaluation rubric, with an overall average score of 2.3 on a scale of 5, as compared to 1.77 for other-prepared first year teachers. Residency-prepared teachers also saw greater gains in the math performance of their students, as compared to other-prepared new teachers, with at least 10% higher scores on locally created assessments at the approaches, meets, and masters levels. The year-to-year retention of residency-prepared teachers was 100% from those hired in 2019-2020 (n=2) and 2021-2022 (n=16). The overall teacher turnover rate in 2021-2022 was 9.9% in the school district and 17.7% in the state of Texas.
While studies of university-based residency models are gaining traction in the research literature, most focus on the experiences and outcomes of teacher candidates during the program. An emerging set of studies examine the longitudinal impact of university-based residency models on new teachers and the students they serve (Gottlieb & Kirksey, 2022). The findings presented here are significant in that they stemmed from a research-practice partnership and they provide an emerging portrait of the impact of the residency on both the performance of new teachers, the majority of whom are Hispanic teachers serving Hispanic PK-12 students, as well as the outcomes of their students.