Fiscal Summary

Increase State Revenue - Exceeds $2,250,000/Teacher Residency Grant Fund Increase State Expenditures - Exceeds $2,367,100/General Fund Exceeds $2,250,000/Teacher Residency Grant Fund Increase Local Revenue - Exceeds $2,250,000/Permissive Increase Local Expenditures - Exceeds $2,250,000/Permissive

Bill Summary

This bill requires the department of education to establish and administer a program of three-year grants for university teacher preparation programs and LEAs to create and implement innovative teacher residency programs in conjunction with a school implemented team-based leadership model that supports teacher residents in learning the craft of teaching.

The department will create an application process for the grant program and evaluate an application based on the commitment of the university, the LEA, and the LEA's participating schools to build an integral partnership. This partnership will require university personnel to regularly provide assistance and support to both teacher residents and the LEA's teacher leaders and teachers working in teams with the teacher residents. This bill authorizes the commissioner of education to award grants through the grant program to qualifying partners as determined through scoring rubrics and policies developed by the department.

To be eligible for a grant under this bill, a teacher preparation program and its partnering LEA must:

(1) Establish a one-year teacher residency that gradually integrates prospective teachers into student instruction by transitioning residents under the guidance of a team of teachers from observation of good teaching practices to being responsible for teaching classes by the end of the school year;
(2) Provide teacher residents with significant guidance from teacher leaders and teams of teachers to affect the goal of moving the teacher resident from being mentored by team members to full integration in the school's instructional plan for students;
(3) Pay teacher residents to enable them to work as full-time teacher residents while enrolled in any associated coursework in their teacher preparation programs. Grant applications may include funding for teacher resident stipends;
(4) Provide additional pay for teacher leaders and members of teacher teams. Grant applications may include funding for stipends for teacher leaders and teachers working in teams with teacher residents.

All applications for a grant under this bill must be accompanied by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the grant partners. The full text of this bill lists five components that must be included in the MOU.

This bill requires the department to give preference to applications for grants that:

(1) Form partnerships between university teacher preparation programs and LEAs with schools in which more than 10 percent of the students are eligible for Tier III assistance under response to instruction and intervention;
(2) Gradually integrate response to instruction and intervention;
(3) Seek to implement the teacher residency program in 20 percent to 30 percent of the LEA's schools that meet the requirements of (1) over the three-year period of the grant;
(4) Focus on the creation of a school implemented team-based leadership model in support of the school's students and the teacher residency program; and
(5) Employ two or more teacher residents in each participating school.

This bill authorizes the department to give preference to applications for grants that:

(1) Focus on providing teachers for areas of high need such as science, mathematics, foreign languages, English as a second language, and special education; and
(2) Focus on recruiting a diverse body of teacher residents who reflect the diversity of the LEA's students as to race, ethnicity, and national origin.

This bill creates the teacher residency program grant fund the proceeds of which will be used by the department to make grants pursuant to this bill.

This bill requires the department to evaluate the grant recipients to determine if the programs have met their goals as stated in the grant applications. The teacher residency programs and their partnering LEAs shall assist the department in making its evaluation. The department must report its findings and any recommendations concerning the grant program to the education committees of the senate and house of representatives by February 1 of the year following the third year of the grant program and by February 1 of any year thereafter if funding for the grant program is extended beyond three years.