AUSTIN, Texas - Educate Texas, an initiative of the Communities Foundation of Texas, wants to see more state funding for teacher residency programs, similar to the one set up by UT-Rio Grande Valley and Harlingen CISD.
In an exclusive audio interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service, Ryan Franklin spoke in-depth about the topic. Franklin is senior director for policy and advocacy at Educate Texas.
“With regard to the retention for teachers, we really think it's important to invest in educator preparation. We saw, statewide, that almost 30 percent of the newly hired teachers last school year entered the classroom with no certification or preparation whatsoever,” Franklin said.
“I think most people were surprised to hear that. The state has very flexible policies and when we allow people in the classroom who are underprepared that ends up creating a revolving door of vacancies.
“So we think by investing in stronger preparation models, like teacher residencies, that this will create a better prepared workforce of teachers who are more likely to stay in the classroom longer and who won't be moving on and jumping out to the next thing.”
Franklin said Educate Texas has seen some positive results from teacher residency programs around the state in a variety of places.
“There's really encouraging work going on in partnerships between UTRGV and Harlingen CISD. We think these models should include state investment to put them on the fast track and get more candidates trained in these high quality preparation routes.”
Asked if education policy makers should be paying attention to what is happening in the Valley, Franklin said:
“We do. We think that the Valley is often a place where we see lots of educational innovation and we're seeing it with these teacher residency programs and these strong partnerships where those who are preparing teachers and those who are hiring future teachers are working together to get a well prepared workforce where those candidates have hands on experience, and they're ready to hit the ground running as a teacher on day one.
“So, we've seen good evidence and good indications of what this can look like in the Valley and we think it's time for the state to learn from those models and help expand and grow those so that we have every student in the state able to benefit from a well-prepared teacher.”
Asked if teacher residency programs have bipartisan support, Franklin said:
“We saw bipartisan support for these concepts in the regular session of the legislature. In fact, both the House and Senate passed legislation that included these proposals. They just didn't get to the finish line as they got tied up in some other complicated policy matters. Most of these proposals came out of the Governor's Teacher Residency Task Force that Governor Abbott formed last year. We really do feel like they are bipartisan (proposals). They've been supported by Republicans and Democrats. They've been supported in both the House and the Senate. And we just want to make sure that those issues not only stay at the forefront, but they (legislators) are able to move them forward.”
Franklin was asked to explain the work of Educate Texas. He responded:
“So, Educate Texas does work statewide. We have a close collaboration in the Valley with RGV Focus and statewide we have two primary focus areas. One is on increasing the number of our Texas students who achieve a degree or credential of value that enables them to be successful in life. And then we also believe in strengthening our teacher and leader workforce to ensure our students are able to benefit from the strongest educators they can in the classroom. So, we work in both the higher education space and workforce space and in the education space through supporting our teachers.”
Asked for any wrap-up remarks, Franklin again stressed the importance of teacher residency programs.
“These teacher residency models, I think a lot of people tend to think of our teachers being prepared in universities and getting that student teaching experience and that's just not the most common route to the classroom anymore.
"What we saw last year was people coming straight in the classroom without that preparation, or even people going through fast track online programs. And we think there's a lot to be learned from this residency model where candidates get hands on experience.
“We would we would never ask a doctor to go through some online modules and then step into the operating room and cut open a patient. So, we shouldn't expect our teachers to be able to do the complex work they are asked to without some hands on practice, supported by a strong mentor.
“And so we really think these residency models hold great promise for our future educator workforce and that with some state investment we can we can expand that and ensure that more students benefit from these educators.”
