A growing number of programs are transitioning from short, uneven practical teacher training in classrooms to residencies, apprenticeships and mentoring, according to an article in The 74.
Residents do more of the day-to-day work of a licensed teacher but in a more junior position, supervised by more experienced teachers. Apprentice teachers take education courses at night and on weekends and spend their days working with students, through tutoring and academic activities as well as full-time teaching. Unlike traditional programs, apprentice teachers often get paid for their time.
Longer residencies are due in part to teaching’s increasing demands and changes in the profession. Some residency programs focus on specifics, such as equipping teachers with research— for example on the science of reading — to understand how learning works. Creating a more diverse workforce or addressing chronic teacher shortages are the aim of other residencies.
The apprenticeship model adds research to new teacher residency programs, with early teaching resembling young doctors training in a research hospital.
Improving student teaching is one of the most efficient ways to strengthen student achievement and teacher retention overall, according to research. In the past 30 years, novice and first-year teachers have increased to become the largest cohort of the workforce, outnumbering teachers who’ve worked for five, 10 or any number of years, researchers say.
About 7% of all teachers, or 245,000 out of 3.5 million, are either first-year or novice teachers, according to a 2017 analysis. The student teaching experience becomes critical to success because new teachers tend to be less effective than experienced ones and leave in higher numbers. Teachers who have positive student teaching experiences with effective, experienced mentor teachers report feeling more prepared to teach.
Obstacles to transforming teacher training remain. “It’s alluring to characterize teaching as medicine, but we’re not going to have anything close to that until we have something that even approaches medical pay,” says Matthew Kraft, an education economist at Brown University. “Those things go together. You train many, many years to become a doctor, not only because it’s necessary, but because there are returns to that multi-year investment in your education.”
Some residency and apprenticeship programs now pay more attention to deconstructing the steps of teaching. More time is spent on research and practical tools, similar to how new doctors practice the “how” while learning the “why” of treating patients.
Traditional student teaching gives practice lessons in controlled environments and then thrusts teachers in front of a classroom of students. Residency models emphasize “gradual release” to full independence, especially in challenging staffing areas such as special education.
“We strive to make sure our residents are classroom ready, no matter where they’re placed,” says Jim Meadows, dean and director of educator career pathways center at the Washington Education Association’s residency program. Apprentices spend time in various special education settings and age groups. The residency was created to address an extreme shortage of special education teachers in Washington state
Gradual release is critical for learning the detailed skills of a special educator, says current resident Beck Williams. For example, writing, reading and interpreting Individualized Education Programs are covered in coursework but are different when working with families and young people.
“In special education teacher training, there’s not enough practice with IEPs and parent interaction,” says Williams’ mentor teacher, Angela Salee. Special education teachers often play several roles in IEP meetings, advocating for the student’s best interest and explaining accommodations to other teachers, administrators and families.
In Mississippi, with 75% of districts having a teacher shortage, alternative licensure programs like the Mississippi Teacher Corps offer two-year residencies and accompanying master’s degrees to get more teachers up to speed as quickly as possible. Residents move into classrooms and start teaching summer school. They immediately plan lessons and figure out classroom management, all under mentors and supervisors.
“Part of the difficulty of teaching is that you can’t fully prepare someone for the classroom,” says corps director Joseph Sweeney. “So part of it is that experience they need in the classroom. You have to get them on their feet to show them what it’s like.”
The 74
