Sec. 2. Findings

955 words·~4 min read·/bill/118/hr/9005/ih/section-2

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Congress finds the following: Across the United States, local educational agencies and elementary and secondary schools are struggling to meet the growing demand for qualified teachers. A 2023 study found that over 310,000 teaching positions in the United States were staffed by instructors who were underqualified to teach or were left entirely vacant. Teacher shortages are disproportionately located in low-income, high-minority schools, although schools of every kind have been affected by a lack of qualified applicants in key subjects including mathematics, special education, science, world languages, career and technical education, and teachers of English language learners.

Teacher shortages are driven in significant part by teacher turnover. Research shows that teacher turnover is higher for those who enter the profession without adequate preparation. Teachers who enter the profession through a comprehensive high-quality program with comprehensive preservice clinical experiences, formal feedback on their teaching, and multiple courses in student learning, as required in high-quality teaching residency programs, are more likely to remain in the profession compared to teachers who enter through a route that lacks these components.

Not only are fully prepared teachers more effective on average, they are also half as likely to leave teaching as under-prepared teachers. Teacher shortages and teacher turnover are costly. Each time a teacher leaves a school, it not only increases demand but also imposes replacement costs on the local educational agency, which range from $9,000 per teacher in small rural local educational agencies to over $20,000 in large urban local educational agencies. The national price tag of replacement costs for teachers is over $8,000,000,000 a year.

Teaching residency programs, which recruit candidates to work as paid apprentices to skilled expert teachers while completing highly integrated coursework, have been successful in recruiting talented, diverse candidates into high-need fields and local educational agencies. Research on teaching residency programs show that such programs are effective in bringing more teachers of color into the profession and in preparing such teachers to stay for the long term. For the 2022–2023 school year, about 69 percent of people in teaching residency programs that partner with the National Center for Teacher Residencies identify as people of color, which is higher than the 21 percent of teachers nationally who identify as people of color.

The teaching residency program model creates long-term benefits for local educational agencies, schools, and for the students served by such agencies and schools. Rigorous studies of teaching residency programs have found significantly higher retention rates for graduates of teaching residency programs, addressing one of the primary contributors to teacher shortages, as well as positive evidence about educator effectiveness. A review of teaching residency program evaluations shows that teachers who completed high quality teaching residency programs tend to have higher teaching retention rates over time compared to teachers who did not complete such programs, including— in Boston, where teaching residents participating in the Boston Teacher Residency program had higher retention rates compared to teachers who were not teaching residents, with 80 percent of residents still teaching in Boston public schools for a third year, compared to 63 percent of teachers who were not teaching residents, and 75 percent of teaching residents still teaching for a fifth year, compared to 51 percent of teachers who were not teaching residents; in Tennessee, where 90 percent of Memphis Teacher Residency program participants were still teaching for a third year, compared with less than 60 percent of teachers district-wide; and additional studies of teaching residency programs show similarly high retention rates of graduates, ranging from 80 percent to 90 percent teaching in the same district after 3 years, and 70 percent to 80 percent teaching in the same district after 5 years.

In 2019, there were at least 50 teaching residency programs nationwide, which range in size from five to 100 teaching residents per year. Several States, including California, Delaware, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia, are expanding access to high-quality teaching residency programs through increased levels of State investment and support. According to data from California, over 75 percent of individuals who completed a teaching residency program rated themselves as well or very well prepared to meet the State’s standards for the teaching profession.

These residents reported receiving more intensive clinical experiences and supports and had more positive perceptions of their preparation than participants in other pathways. Research also shows that teaching residents strengthen schools across the country by reducing teacher shortages and providing local educational agencies with a more sustainable educator workforce. Teaching residency programs align with the purpose of the Federal Work-Study Program to provide valuable work experience and work related to a student’s course of study and intended profession.

Further, the Federal Work-Study Program prioritizes teaching reading based on scientifically-based research on reading, a feature consistent with efforts in teaching residency programs to equip all new teachers, regardless of subject area, with the skills to support reading and literacy skills for all students. According to a recent report by the George W. Bush Institute on principal talent management, preparing successful principals requires new, comprehensive approaches by school districts, universities, States, and others who pull together to train and support principals.

Thoughtfully designed and implemented principal residency programs can be a powerful piece of this comprehensive and collaborative approach to training future educational leadership. Residencies for aspiring school principals are a promising approach to initiate principal candidates into school leadership practice and has become a part of some comprehensive principal preparation programs over the past 20 years. Principal residencies reinvent the traditional internship experience, which has often been the capstone experience in principal preparation.

Residency immerses principal candidates in rigorous apprenticeship experiences that are designed to advance leadership and management practices, as well as emphasize data analysis, action, reflection, and accountability.