Program Overview

The Nashville Teacher Residency (NTR) will annually recruit and train 75-100 recent non-education major college graduates to become long-term, high performing teachers in Nashville district and charter operated schools each year. NTR’s, hands-on, practice driven curriculum and residency model draws heavily from the successful Match Teacher Residency Program in Boston. Below is a brief outline of some of the major programmatic features of NTR:

Local Talent Recruitment: To establish a pipeline of exceptional candidates likely to stay in teaching and Nashville, NTR will invest in an extensive local recruitment effort of rising and first semester seniors, focusing in particular on students of color.

Outstanding Partner Schools: During the Fall of 2015, NTR will invite applications from district and charter schools to become “partner schools” who will host and hire teacher residents. Partner schools will be selected based on their ability to provide outstanding, achievement driven mentor teachers and surround residents in a culture of feedback. NTR will launch in Spring, 2016 with three or four partner schools.

Senior Internship: To increase retention rates, selected candidates will complete a three-month internship during the Spring of their senior year at one of NTR’s partner schools. This internship functions as an extended “try-out” for both the intern and NTR; the intern can decide if they really want to commit to teaching, while NTR can evaluate their fit for the residency.

The Residency Year: o Residents are placed with a mentor teacher at a partner school,

working in classrooms, and assuming increasing teaching responsibilities throughout the year. Residents are coached and held accountable for implementing feedback by their mentor teachers.

o Throughout the residency year, residents attend twice-weekly technical, practice-heavy, teacher education classes in management, relationship building, and math or ELA instructional methods, taught by NTR faculty.

o In June, residents complete their pre-service year in NTR, are endorsed for licensure, and begin preparing for full-time teaching at their residency school in August.

Training and Support of Mentor Teachers: To provide outstanding coaching to the NTR residents and help partner schools develop leadership talent, all mentor teachers will attend 30 hours of coach training and receive frequent observations, feedback, and support on their work with the residents. This is a tremendous opportunity for partner schools to invest in the development of their best teachers and give them the tools to spread their influence through effective coaching and mentoring.

Cost: Partner schools will be responsible for paying resident’s salary (equivalent to a paraprofessional during the residency year) and a $7,000 training and support fee to NTR. We expect the program to be financially self-sustaining after five years.