From Band-Aids to Blueprints: High-Quality Teacher Residencies as the National Standard for Teacher Apprenticeships

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am - Gold 1
  In Roundtable Session: Situated, Sustained, and Transformative: Innovations in Teacher Apprenticeship and Preparation

Abstract

Challenges of teacher recruitment and retention have reached a tipping point. It’s time to center systemic solutions to strengthening teacher preparation as a foundational part of the response. For years, Band-Aid approaches of fast-track teacher preparation as strategy for addressing shortages led to inconsistent quality and exacerbated the challenges in teacher retention and equity. High-quality, paid teacher residencies should serve as the foundation of teacher apprenticeship programs to address the pressing need for a diverse pool of well-prepared teacher candidates. This conceptual paper argues for aligning emerging teacher apprenticeship programs in equity-driven, clinically rich, and sustainable paid teacher residency models. Furthermore, we contend that education preparation programs must move toward systematized preparation aligned with residencies rather than normalizing district-driven variability.

Author

• Aisha Haynes Young, Prepared To Teach/New York University