Tennessee Department of Education Awards Grant for New Teacher Residency Program

NASHVILLE— Education Commissioner Candice McQueen announced today that Vanderbilt University's Peabody College has been awarded nearly $16,000 in grant funding to design a teacher residency program that will pair prospective educators with effective educators for a yearlong clinical experience in preparation of being a fully licensed teacher in partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).

Over the next few months, Vanderbilt University's Peabody College will collaborate with MNPS to develop the plans for a two-part teacher residency program, which would allow the first cohort of residents to begin in the fall of 2018. The department has committed funding to support the development of residency programs over the next two years.

"We must ensure that our state has a strong, vibrant educator pipeline to meet the needs of our schools and provide high-quality instruction for our students," said Commissioner McQueen. "A teacher residency program uniquely supports an educator pipeline that is aligned with the individual needs in local communities through in-depth, authentic experiences."

In April, the department released Preparation Through Partnership, a report which identifies the need to continually improve the state's teacher pipeline to increase the number of effective educators in Tennessee schools. The report identifies pathways to accomplish this goal, including increasing collaboration between educator preparation providers (EPPs) and school districts to create high quality, authentic and well-structured clinical experiences for teachers in training.

To encourage the development of this collaboration in the form of a teacher residency program, which is based on the concept of a medical residency, the department created the Tennessee Teacher Residency grant.

Through a competitive application process, Vanderbilt University's Peabody College was selected to receive funding for the planning phase as part of the Tennessee Teacher Residency grant program. Additional funding, up to 1 million dollars, may be awarded for the full development and implementation of the residency program based on the outcomes from the planning phase of the grant.

For more information on the Tennessee Teacher Residency grant, please contact Amy Wooten, executive director of educator licensure and preparation, at Amy.Wooten@tn.gov. For media inquiries, please contact Chandler Hopper, deputy director of communications, at Chandler.Hopper@tn.gov or (615) 248-7073.