This document contains sample language for state plans. Please feel free to adapt this document for use in your efforts to encourage your state education agency to include residency funding in its application for the last third of ARP dollars, which is due June 7th. For more information, contact PreparedToTeach@bankstreet.eduhttps://educate.bankstreet.edu/pt/1025/thumbnail.jp

Prepared To Teach, Bank Street College

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1 Sample Language for States to Include in American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) Please feel free to adapt this document for use in your efforts to encourage your state education agency to include residency funding in its application for the last third of ARP dollars, which is due June 7th, 2021. For more information, contact PreparedToTeach@bankstreet.edu Introduction As the State makes plans to thoughtfully invest the funds provided by the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER), funded teacher residency partnerships can—and should—play an important role in the strategic thinking about any supports for teaching and learning. Learning to teach requires both study and practice. Teacher residencies, where an aspiring teacher works alongside an accomplished mentor while also engaged in study through an aligned, high-quality teacher preparation program, offer that foundation for learning.i The current teacher preparation system, though, was built on a model from more than a century ago that expected individuals to engage in study and practice for free. This system is unsustainable, inequitable, and inefficient, both in terms of who can access high-quality programs and in terms of who is taught by those who are well-prepared.ii  Providing stipends to aspiring teachers is a proven approach to attract and retain well-prepared, diverse teachers into the profession.iii Because residencies can be designed over time to become more sustainably funded, ARP ESSER funds provide an unprecedented opportunity to invest in the teaching workforce in ways that can remodel teaching and learning, disrupt inequities in the system, and strengthen schools and student outcomes across the state.iv  Building sustainable, affordable, high-quality teacher residency partnerships will transform the teacher preparation ecosystem, creating positive impacts that will far outlive ARP ESSER funding. Year-long paid residencies will reduce turnover, strengthen instruction, stabilize schools, and build a teacher workforce that resembles its student population. All these will have positive budgetary impacts on both school systems and state coffers overall which in turn can contribute to sustainably funding residencies in the longer term. As part of the overall plan for ARP ESSER funds, we request the State address the problems of affordability for high-quality teacher preparation so that aspiring teachers can engage in the demanding work of becoming fully certified before leading a classroom, paving the path towards the teacher preparation system we need for the future. We offer language for inclusion into the plan below, organized according to the template for the application the State must submit. It is our hope that the State will incorporate these ideas in its application for ARP ESSER funds, thereby allowing districts to pursue residency partnerships with preparation programs as they see fit for the development of their local teaching force.  Click here to access and download an editable Word version of this document.                2 Describing the State’s Current Status and Needs: USDOE Language: The Department recognizes the extraordinary efforts made by States, LEAs, and educators to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this section, SEAs will describe the progress they have made, the priorities and student needs guiding their ARP ESSER funding decisions, and their current and projected operating status.  Attrition during COVID-19 exacerbated the teacher shortage.  Districts across the state have worked with their teacher preparation programs to address some of the needs, for example by allowing teacher candidates to provide in-person and virtual instructional supports and to substitute teach.  During the height of the crisis, these steps were helpful and necessary, but they are not sufficient for the long-term projection of teacher shortages.  The State recognizes that growing sub-par credential programs to meet increased needs will compound inequities. We need replacements to be well-prepared or inequities will continue to grow.  Safely Reopening Schools and Sustaining their Safe Operations: USDOE Language: The Department recognizes that safely reopening schools and sustaining their safe operations to maximize in-person instruction is essential for student learning and student well-being, and especially for being able to address the educational inequities that have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this section, SEAs will describe how they will support their LEAs in this vital area.  By encouraging districts to develop residency partnerships with high-quality teacher preparation programs, the State will help meet the need for additional qualified educators to support instruction in the environment the context demands, whether in-person, remote, or hybrid.  Maintaining social distancing will also require a lower adult to learner ratio in schools, and those adults should be individuals who are committed educators attuned to the learning needs of students, as residents are.  Planning for the Use and Coordination of ARP ESSER Funds: USDOE Language: The Department recognizes that seeking input from diverse stakeholders is essential to developing plans for the use of ARP ESSER funds that are responsive to the needs of students, families, and educators. In this section, SEAs will describe their plans for consultation and for coordinating the use of ARP ESSER funds with other resources to meet the needs of students.  The State sees strong teacher preparation/district partnerships as crucial to the successful use of ARP ESSER funds and has multiple mechanisms for input into how strong residency partnerships with districts can be planned and coordinated.  Initial plans include meetings with leaders of principal, superintendent, and preparation program professional organizations to ensure quality and equity in the use of the funds.  Partnerships that seek to use funds for residencies will also either engage in self-study using publicly available resources to braid existing resources into programs and to design for sustainability,v or they will engage technical assistance providers to support that work.  Maximizing State-Level Funds to Support Students: USDOE Language: The Department recognizes that States have an extraordinary opportunity to address the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on underserved students through the ARP Act’s required State set-asides to address the academic impact of lost instructional time, provide summer learning and enrichment programs, and provide comprehensive afterschool programs. In this section, SEAs will describe their evidence-based strategies for these resources.  Co teaching models have positive impacts on student outcomes in as little as a semester;vi residents are engaged in this kind of instruction all year. Evidence increasingly suggests that residents create supportive learning environments and improve instructional outcomes in classrooms.vii  All these benefits of residencies will help address the exacerbated opportunity gaps created by COVID-19.  In addition, residency models                 3 throughout the nation employ residents in positions such as afterschool and summer programs.  With a strong pool of residents, districts can staff their evidence-based programs with residents, effectively braiding resources for supplemental instruction with resident funding, ultimately promoting sustainability also.  Supporting LEAs in Planning for and Meeting Students’ Needs:  USDOE Language: The Department recognizes that the safe return to in-person instruction must be accompanied by a focus on meeting students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs, and by addressing the opportunity gaps that existed before – and were exacerbated by – the pandemic. In this section, SEAs will describe how they will support their LEAs in developing high-quality plans for LEAs’ use of ARP ESSER funds to achieve these objectives.  The State proposes to develop a community of practice across those LEAs that choose to engage teacher preparation programs in the development of funded residencies.  This approach has been successful in both Louisiana and California In supporting high-quality residency development.viii  Supporting the Educator Workforce: USDOE Language: The Department recognizes the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on the Nation’s educators as well as students. In this section, SEAs will describe strategies for supporting and stabilizing the educator workforce and for making staffing decisions that will support students’ academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs.  Both Grow Your Own and other residencies have the power to reduce turnover and serve as a remedy for the lack of diversity in the workforce and to address teacher shortages, especially in hard-to-staff schools and certification areas.ix Residencies have the power to reduce turnover because they allow teacher candidates to spend substantial time in the classroom and their school communities before leading a class independently.  Residents develop professional networks of support, become familiar with district priorities and initiatives, and become working members of the whole school community.  Grow Your Own programs in particular are powerful tools to cultivate potential teachers with deep and shared cultural understanding of the students they will eventually teach.  Monitoring and Measuring Progress: USDOE Language: The Department recognizes that transparency on how ARP ESSER funds are used and their impact on the Nation’s education system is a fundamental responsibility of Federal, State, and local government. In this section, SEAs will describe how they are building capacity at the SEA and LEA levels to ensure high-quality data collection and reporting and to safeguard funds for their intended purposes.  The State will monitor and measuring use of ARP ESSER funds through high quality data collection and reporting documenting: candidate demographics, placement, employment, retention, all using a standard template for every residency partnership.  The State is also exploring support for an evaluation of the residencies that would include surveys of mentor teachers, principals, and residents.                   4  Endnotes i Roneeta Guha and Tara Kini, “Teacher Residencies: Building a High-Quality, Sustainable Workforce” (Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute, 2016), http://bit.ly/2phcQwi; Brigid Fallon, “Investing in Residencies, Improving Schools: How Principals Can Fund Better Teaching and Learning” (New York, NY: Bank Street College of Education, Prepared to Teach, September 2017); Hannah Dennis and Karen DeMoss, “The Residency Revolution: Funding High-Quality Teacher Preparation” (New York: Bank Street College of Education, Prepared To Teach, April 2021); Sarah Beal et al., “Scaling High Quality Teacher Residencies” (Education First, 2020), https://education-first.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Scalability-Report-V5_FINAL.pdf. ii See pages 1-5 of Dennis and DeMoss, “The Residency Revolution” for a discussion of the literature on teacher preparation, teacher turnover, teacher residencies, and their linkages to equity concerns. iii Desiree Carver-Thomas and Linda Darling-Hammond, “Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do about It” (Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute, August 2017), http://bit.ly/2w691jU; Karen DeMoss, “Following the Money: Exploring Residency Funding through the Lens of Economics” (New York: Bank Street College of Education, Prepared To Teach, April 2018), https://educate.bankstreet.edu/faculty-staff/16/. iv Karen DeMoss et al., “Clearing the Path: Redesigning Teacher Preparation for the Public Good” (New York: Bank Street College of Education, Prepared To Teach, September 2017). v For example, see publications and resources at “Prepared To Teach,” Bank Street College of Education, accessed March 2, 2021, bankstreet.edu/prepared-to-teach. vi Nancy Bacharach, Teresa Washut Heck, and Kathryn Dahlberg, “Changing the Face of Student Teaching through Coteaching,” Action in Teacher Education 32, no. 1 (2010): 3–14. vii Guha and Kini, “Teacher Residencies”; Jessica Cardichon et al., “Inequitable Opportunity to Learn: Student Access to Certified and Experienced Teachers” (Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute, 2020); Ryan Eisner et al., “Examining the Impact of Denver Teacher Residency on Teacher Retention, Teacher Effectiveness, and Student Achievement” (Association for Education Finance Policy, Washington, D.C., March 16, 2017), http://bit.ly/2EaQciy; John P. Papay et al., “Does an Urban Teacher Residency Increase Student Achievement? Early Evidence From Boston,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 34, no. 4 (2012): 413–34; Kay Sloan et al., “A Different, More Durable Model” (San Francisco, CA: Rockman et al, September 2018); DeMoss et al., “Clearing the Path: Redesigning Teacher Preparation for the Public Good”, appendix 2. viii Maria Salciccioli et al., “Going Further Together: Building Ownership and Engagement for Sustainable, Quality Teacher Preparation” (New York: Bank Street College of Education, Prepared To Teach, May 2021). ix Cardichon et al., “Inequitable Opportunity to Learn: Student Access to Certified and Experienced Teachers”; Guha and Kini, “Teacher Residencies.”                                                  

Sample State Application Language for Residencies in ARPA

https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&amp;context=pt

Sample State Application Language for Residencies in ARPA

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