Resources

To help residencies recruit and train diverse, well-prepared educators in high-needs areas, the state of California dedicated $75 million in 2018 to develop and expand teacher residency programs across the state through the California Teacher Residency Grant program. As a part of WestEd’s formative evaluation of the program, this brief focuses on how teacher residency programs are shaping their practices to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, and shifting their in-person programs online.

In our evaluation of the 2019–20 residency year, spring survey data (gathered shortly after a majority of California’s school districts suspended in-person learning to stem the spread of COVID-19 showed that 40 percent of mentors felt that the training they were receiving was “moderately,” “slightly,” or “not at all” useful. Given these results, researchers examined teacher residency programs that had data indicating mentors were satisfied with their programs, and investigated the professional learning that these programs provided to their mentor teachers during distance learning. The aim of this brief is to succinctly document a limited selection of real-life practices and highlight topics for discussion among practitioners seeking to learn about other teacher residency programs and improve their own programs.