The Marshall Teacher Residency produces high-quality teachers who represent the communities they serve. For seven years, we’ve partnered with schools across California to build sustainable pipelines of diverse, ready-on-day-one teachers. With each new school year, our impact grows.
We cannot address the challenges facing American schools without improving teacher preparation. These challenges, including America’s persistent teacher shortage, are intimately bound to the ways in which we prepare teachers for the profession.
Powerful teacher preparation blends theory, practice, and mentorship to produce teachers who are prepared on the first day they teach and every day thereafter; who represent the communities they serve; and who persist in the profession to lead classrooms that are student-centered, data-driven, anti-racist, and supportive of the whole child.
A Year of Growing Our Impact
Maintaining the Foundation for Quality Teacher Preparation
Spotlight: Residents Benefit from Black Educators Initiative
The 2023–24 school year saw Marshall Teacher Residency grow and expand our programs to serve aspiring teachers from transitional kindergarten through grade 12. Newly launched Multiple Subject and Education Specialist residencies helped us produce teachers to fill the most highly needed roles throughout the state.
These new programs and our Single Subject residency comprised our seventh cohort, containing a combined 60 residents — full cohorts of Single and Multiple Subject residents and a pilot of Education Specialists. With the new residencies, the number of teacher candidates in residence in the 2023–24 school year nearly doubled. Almost 80% of these candidates received job offers from a partner school despite budget cuts and uncertainty with the end of COVID funding.
More than 60% of residents from this year identified as people of color, 34% as male, and 7% as non-binary, contributing to a teaching workforce that better represents the students it serves. In addition, more than half of residents were Pell Grant recipients, and 42% were first-generation college students.
This diversity is a result of our commitment to helping partner schools grow their own pipelines of excellent teachers. Nearly half of our 2023–24 residents were recruited by a school partner from within their own community.
For example, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools is a nationally-ranked public charter school network of middle and high schools serving families in Los Angeles, California. To strengthen their schools, Alliance is growing their own pipeline of high-quality teachers in the areas of math, English, and special education. For 2023–24, Alliance partnered with Marshall Teacher Residency to host 10 Marshall residents, recruited entirely from the Alliance community, including instructional assistants, substitutes, and alumni. Alliance chose to partner with Marshall Teacher Residency for its high-quality, established residency model coupled with its flexibility in adapting to a partner’s school context.
As we step into another school year, we look forward to building upon the grow-your-own approach and to the additional benefits it may provide to students and schools. The 2024–25 school year will see our largest-ever cohort of residents, including 15 Education Specialist residents and 20 Multiple Subject residents. A full 40% of the over 90 residents starting this year were recruited from alumni, classified staff, or parents at one of our partner schools.
This fact is remarkable, as finances are one of the biggest barriers for aspiring teachers. Our residency provides an affordable and supportive pathway to a professional career for teachers who might not otherwise be able to enter the profession. It’s an effective pathway as well, as evidenced by the more than 90% of residents hired into full-time positions right out of the program.
Marshall residents who persist into their first year of teaching assume zero cost for our program, ensuring that finances are never a barrier for those who dream of becoming a teacher.
We also remove other barriers that limit access to quality teacher training. For example, we don’t use college GPA as part of the admissions process. An applicant’s mindsets about students and education are better indicators that they possess the attributes of a powerful teacher: a belief that all students can be successful, a commitment to learning and growing as anti-racist educators, and a growth mindset.
But these aren’t just any teachers entering the workforce for the first time. These teachers are knowledgeable and well-prepared for the realities of the classroom. They are more likely to represent the communities they serve and to stay in the profession.
A teacher’s effectiveness improves with experience and professional development each year, so when a teacher leaves the profession, students and their learning suffer. This trend is especially pronounced in high-needs schools — such as those we primarily serve — and hard-to-staff subjects, where teacher turnover is higher than average.
Nationally, about 45% of teachers leave within their first five years in the classroom, and only 50% of new teachers in high-needs schools continue teaching beyond three years. Contrast that with Marshall teacher residents who have been out of the program for three or more years, 80% of whom are still in teaching positions — even after the tumult caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that though more than half of the public school student population is composed of students of color, a full 79 percent of the teacher population is White.
Students who have teachers and school leaders who reflect their identities experience increased academic outcomes in both the short and long term. Improved academic outcomes are associated with enhanced life outcomes, affecting earnings, economic mobility, employment, and civic engagement.
Our residents see for themselves how our commitment to diversity comes through in our programs. One 2023–24 resident described it this way:
“This program has prepared us well to become aware of the achievement gaps that exist in education and how our work as teachers is important to reduce those gaps. For example, providing support for all students with different backgrounds and meeting their needs to succeed in school is a priority for educators. They have prepared us by giving us projects to research different topics, write thoughts, plan our approaches, and reflect on them too.”
Others are taking notice of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as to innovation, measurement, and continuous improvement. The National Center for Teacher Residencies awarded the Marshall Teacher Residency its prestigious Black Educators Initiative grant, honoring the work of the residency to recruit, develop, and retain Black educators.
Unlike traditional teacher preparation programs, our residents are immersed in the classroom with constant and intentional opportunities to learn, do, reflect, and grow with support from their cooperating teacher and program mentor. Residents are in the classroom six to eight hours per day, four full days per week throughout the one-year residency, working with their cooperating teacher to co-plan, co-teach, and hone their craft. This preparation amounts to well over 1,000 clinical hours, far above the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing (CTC) requirement of 600 clinical hours.
Outside of the classroom, residents work with faculty to master credentialing coursework and apply it directly to their experience in the classroom. All coursework is designed to be integrated into the clinical experience, leveraging performance tasks like case studies, cycles of inquiry, and portfolios. Mentors and faculty support coherence between the coursework and clinical experience.
“I strongly believe in the ‘learn by doing’ philosophy, so I think spending the day in a classroom and picking up gradual responsibility is essential for helping me develop as a teacher. I also like engaging in other teacher responsibilities at my site, such as faculty meetings and collaborative groups, as it helps me feel more integrated with the community.” — 2022–23 Marshall Resident at Capuchino High School in San Mateo Union High School District
“I strongly believe in the ‘learn by doing’ philosophy, so I think spending the day in a classroom and picking up gradual responsibility is essential for helping me develop as a teacher. I also like engaging in other teacher responsibilities at my site, such as faculty meetings and collaborative groups, as it helps me feel more integrated with the community.”
— 2022–23 Marshall Resident at Capuchino High School in San Mateo Union High School District
Why is this important? Numerous studies show that poor teacher preparation leads to teacher attrition within the first several years of teaching. Teacher preparation that is focused only on theory and disconnected from real school contexts doesn’t adequately prepare teachers for the reality of the classroom. Conversely, strong mentorship and intentional, substantial experience in the classroom — experience that’s directly connected to residents’ training — lead to greater retention.
The external assessment of the edTPA validates our internal assessment of resident performance.
Amazingly, throughout the program’s history, 95% of Marshall residents have passed the edTPA. And in the pilot year of the Education Specialist program, 100% of residents passed on their first attempt. In contrast, the national pass rate is only 72%.
School leaders are confident that our residents will be high-quality first-year teachers, well-prepared for teaching responsibilities and for building relationships and culture inside and outside of the classroom.
School leaders who host our residents are also enthusiastic about the quality of preparation. They all believe that residents stand out among their peers, serving as teacher leaders at their school sites. Additionally, after completing the program, residents themselves feel prepared and ready to teach on day one.
One partner principal reflected upon the benefits of our approach:
“Marshall Teacher Residency allows us to mold and grow a teacher in their first year. They are able to learn the culture (and logistics) of the school in a low-pressure environment and take their time to dive into leading a classroom gradually. Teachers that work in some capacity at the school site prior to becoming the teacher on record are able to start a school year strong with their classroom with better classroom management, better lesson planning, and stronger relationships with their students.”
Aspiring teachers experience these methods and approaches as residents, before applying them in their own classrooms.
“I feel like I, as a student, am prioritized and valued within the coursework experiences. The Marshall Teacher Residency staff practice equitable engagement strategies to foster an anti-racist environment where everyone’s contributions are valued, and high expectations are held for all. Data from [formative assessments] and student work are used to inform instruction, and we regularly refresh on topics of confusion for students.” — 2022–23 Marshall Resident at Summit Denali in Sunnyvale, California
“I feel like I, as a student, am prioritized and valued within the coursework experiences. The Marshall Teacher Residency staff practice equitable engagement strategies to foster an anti-racist environment where everyone’s contributions are valued, and high expectations are held for all. Data from [formative assessments] and student work are used to inform instruction, and we regularly refresh on topics of confusion for students.”
— 2022–23 Marshall Resident at Summit Denali in Sunnyvale, California
Click to learn about the impact of NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative through its annual reports.
In 2023–24, Marshall Teacher Residency was awarded grant funding by the Black Educators Initiative (BEI) to support our innovative efforts to recruit, prepare, and retain Black educators. The goal of the Black Educators Initiative is to reduce historical and enduring barriers to entry for aspiring Black educators, while also offering a high bar for quality through community-based clinical preparation.
Marshall Teacher Residency used BEI funds to increase stipends to support eligible residents with living expenses and relocation costs, allowing these students to stay in the program despite differing circumstances, unexpected life events, and the experience of financial hardship.
One resident, Daisha, was enrolled in our residency program for the summer and fall semester, after which she planned to take a leave of absence for the birth of her baby. Her pregnancy unexpectedly became high-risk, and concern for her health and the health of her baby forced an earlier leave. Daisha was able to leverage emergency funding from the BEI grant to meet her expenses and stay on track to complete the program in 2024–25. “My educational path has been rocky, to say the least,” she said, “but I have persevered and used education as a tool of empowerment. I plan on using my role in the classroom to connect, inspire, and lift up voices.”
For another resident, Tilar, BEI grant funds assisted in her relocation from Michigan to California to participate in the residency program and provided an additional monthly stipend during the program year. Tilar joined Marshall Teacher Residency’s first cohort of Multiple Subject residents, completed her residency at the New School of San Francisco, and was hired to stay on for her first year of teaching in the 2024–25 school year. She said, of her role as a resident and teacher, “I come in as a Black woman and I leave as a Black woman … so knowing that it’s such a huge, fundamental part of who I am, I always want to make children of color feel as if they are important, significant, valued, and included in every space that they come into.”
The Black Educators Initiative will provide additional funding in the 2024–25 school year to help us expand this important work.
To build on the success of our grow-your-own partnerships, we’re expanding to offer additional pathways into teaching. As of fall 2024, we are seeking accreditation to add an intern pathway to our program offerings. In our work over the last seven years, we’ve encountered numerous grow-your-own candidates who already have multiple years of experience working in schools as aides, paraprofessionals, or long-term substitutes. These candidates possess significant classroom experience, and schools want to keep them in full-time roles. The residency route, which is designed to provide modeling and build the experience of professionals newer to schools, isn’t necessarily the right pathway. Instead, the intern program will deliver the same high-quality coursework, coaching, and observation through a different delivery model. Together, the two programs will offer joint pipeline solutions to our partners, with whom we’ll work to find the right pathway for each candidate — because all new teachers deserve a high-quality learning experience.