July 16, 2024
Teacher residency program improves retention and diversity
A $1.5 million Kaiser Permanente grant addresses Colorado teacher shortage through a program modeled after medical residencies.
It’s important for students from racially diverse backgrounds to see themselves and their experiences reflected in their teachers.
Amid Colorado’s severe teacher shortage, a teacher residency program from the Public Education & Business Coalition is improving teacher retention and diversity with the help of a grant from Kaiser Permanente.
The PEBC Teacher Residency program, modeled on medical residencies, has evolved from 2 Colorado-based teacher residency programs dating back 20 years.
With the help of a $1.5 million, 2-year Kaiser Permanente grant awarded in the winter of 2023, the program is expanding mental health support and reducing financial barriers for “pre-service” teacher candidates with a focus on candidates of color. Kaiser Permanente grant funding comes from the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Fund at the Denver Foundation.
“Healthy schools are the cornerstones of healthy communities, and to develop and maintain healthy schools, we need to ensure a stable, diverse pipeline of teachers,” said Mike Ramseier, regional president of Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. “Kaiser Permanente is proud to support PEBC’s efforts.”
By giving teacher residents training on social, emotional, and trauma-informed practices, the PEBC residency improves teacher retention rates long-term; 81% of teachers who completed the PEBC residency are still teaching after 5 years, compared with the national average of only 55%. The grant enhances those supports by layering on Kaiser Permanente’s Thriving Schools Resilience in School Environments, or RISE, social-emotional learning and trauma-informed practice resources.
And the number of racially diverse teacher candidates in the residency has risen by 8 percentage points.
Healthy schools are the cornerstones of healthy communities, and to develop and maintain healthy schools, we need to ensure a stable, diverse pipeline of teachers. Mike Ramseier, regional president
"Through our partnership with Kaiser Permanente, the PEBC Teacher Residency program has seen a significant positive impact on key initiatives, achieving remarkable progress in a short span,” said Tracy Wagers, PEBC manager of Resident Development, Coaching, and Mentoring. “This alliance contributed to developing a research-based framework of social-emotional learning competencies that enrich our teacher licensure curriculum and promote educator mental health. The mental health skills our teachers in training learn can be translated for use within the classroom with colleagues and with students.”
The program and the grant support teacher candidates through a critical stage in early professional development. Many of them face financial hurdles when completing licensure-required teacher residency, which requires working in classrooms without pay or health care coverage. Costs include licensure exams, study materials, and living expenses, as well as an emergency fund for unforeseen circumstances. The barriers are particularly pronounced for under-resourced populations. Increasing the number of teachers from diverse backgrounds is important because students who see themselves and their experiences reflected in their teachers gain a new confidence about what they can achieve and where their future could take them.
Program participants must have a bachelor’s degree in any subject to enter the program. They complete a year-long residency in which they’re trained and embedded in a classroom with a veteran mentor teacher for an entire school year as they earn their teaching license. Part of the Kaiser Permanente grant provides additional stipends that students can use to support themselves throughout the residency.
“Being able to support myself while doing a teaching program was pivotal,” said Shane Shelby, a participant in the PEBC residency program who identifies as Hispanic. “I might not have gone into teaching at this moment.” Shelby completed his residency in May 2024.
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