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A key consideration for building a residency partnership is articulating agreements that clarify each party's responsibilities—programs and schools or districts—and foster a shared understanding of the mutual goals and responsibilities the partnership wishes to embrace. Agreements can remain informal or can form the basis for a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). See a sample MOU below.

Sharing analyses from the national survey of aspiring teachers carried out by Prepared To Teach during the 2019–2020 school year, Beyond Tuition, Costs of Teacher Preparation dives into the income sources, expenses, debt, and work realities of aspiring teachers across the country and identifies where candidates need additional support.

By drawing on effective, lasting collaboration among stakeholders who have not traditionally worked together—both within and across organizational lines, programs can successfully identify sustainable funding sources for the long term. This report highlights nationwide programs that have successfully sustained and grown the commitments that ensure program development and longevity.

The current Prepared To Teach theory of change supports national communities of practice in five domains identified by the network's learning agenda in the 2019–20 school year: mindset shifts, educator roles, labor market alignment, school improvement, and deeper learning. These domains explore residency partnership programs, how individual programs both solidify and strengthen existing partnerships, and how to expand the benefits partnerships can reap through their work together.

The future of the teaching profession depends on improving access to quality preparation programs by ensuring that aspiring teachers are supported financially in their journey to becoming the best-prepared educators they can be. Conducting a survey at 12 institutions across seven states to explore aspiring teachers’ financial burdens, Prepared To Teach examines anxieties that aspiring teachers face during preparation, the difficult choices they are often forced to make in order to pursue their passion for teaching, and the impact this has on the quality and diversity of our nation’s pool of teacher candidates.

Teacher educators at Western Washington University's Elementary Education program and district administrators at Ferndale School District reconsidered their approach to teacher preparation. They revised residency-like work opportunities, the placement process, district "on-boarding" processes, and created responsive professional development throughout the residency.

With significant state investment, teacher residencies are spreading throughout California. These vignettes highlight two California teacher residencies and how they are helping to address shortages and support both students and teachers. These examples also spotlight creative funding strategies that can help California’s investments in teacher residencies become sustainable over time.

In order for teacher residencies to be successful, states and localities need to enact supportive policies that lay the groundwork for sustainability. Leaders can look to successful programs in New York State for principles that make sustainable policy possible.

Designing a residency requires attention to both long and short-term planning processes, all of which should be overseen by an inclusive group of stakeholders. By working together, advisory boards can develop expectations for the program and quality placement sites for residents. This deck shares Prepared To Teach’s perspective on creating a strong, inclusive advisory board to guide your work.

How we fund programs is at the root of the challenges in our current teacher preparation system. The economic challenges in our education system are well known, but in this report, we dive into the realities of funding for teacher preparation specifically—and call for creating a knowledge base about the system to support quality.

School leaders can structure budgets to make room for innovative programs, creative staffing plans, and new initiatives. Principals have the opportunity to do the same when it comes to residencies—and when they do, it’s not only aspiring teachers who benefit. The entire community sees positive impacts. Using funding models from California public schools, this report explores where there might be room for co-teaching in every public school classroom.

Sustainability must be part of residency program development from the earliest stages. Schools, districts, and preparation programs can leverage structures that facilitate strong partnerships and reduce student financial burdens—but those pieces need to be integrated into each step of the planning, design, and implementation process. This report examines how partnerships can work together to sustain residencies and create lasting change in our education system.

Teacher preparation programs that work for everyone—preparation providers, districts, and aspiring teachers—rely on strong partnerships. Residency programs bring districts and providers together to support sustained clinical practice for candidates and create aligned goals throughout the program, linking teacher preparation to success in the classroom.

It’s time to transform our system to ensure that teachers have the practice and support they need to be successful in 21st-century classrooms. Teaching is a clinical practice profession, and teacher preparation should reflect that. We believe that preparation programs and districts can work together to create a better system. This publication is our framework for change.