Boston Teacher Residency (BTR)
Boston Teacher Residency tackles a crucial urban school district problem in an innovative way: It places teaching preparation in classrooms, rather than in schools of education. BTR recruits highly talented people from diverse backgrounds who are committed to becoming urban teachers and places them in a year-long, school-based residency. Working closely with a mentor teacher and taking courses designed and led by Boston educators, the residents learn the skills and dispositions that will matter most for their students and themselves.
How it works
A joint effort of the Boston Plan for Excellence and the Boston Public Schools, BTR recruits hundreds of applicants who enter a rigorous selection process. If selected, residents spend four days a week in a classroom and take specialized courses tailored to BPS reform goals on Fridays, after-school, and during two summers. Graduates of the program earn a Massachusetts Initial Teacher Licensure in their primary academic area, partial credit toward dual licensure in special education (which they complete the following year), and a master’s degree in education from UMass/Boston. The costs of the program are forgiven through a three-year commitment to teach in the Boston Public Schools. BTR is adding a new track to allow Residents to become licensed in ESL.
BTR continues to support graduates of the program in their first three years of teaching, seeking to ease the transition from “new teacher” to “effective teacher” and create a stable core of effective teachers for the Boston Public Schools.
Why it matters
There is one school reform we know that works: good teachers. Unfortunately, Boston, like most urban districts, faces a human capacity gap. BTR is interrupting the cycle of high teacher turnover and raising the quality and consistency of new teachers. As of 2007, there are 130 BTR graduates teaching in the Boston Public Schools, with 80 more being prepared; at scale, BTR will prepare 120 teachers per year. This critical mass of like-minded, effective teachers will be well equipped to carry out school and district improvements. The schools that host Residents and that hire clusters of BTR graduates are already seeing a positive impact on instruction and professional culture. In time, this impact will spread across the district.
Check out the facts and figures about BTR.