California Educator August 2015

California Educator August 2015

SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT (SFUSD) found solutions to these questions by partnering with two Bay Area universities and the local teachers union to create a “residency” program that goes beyond typical preservice preparation. In San Francisco, a unique partnership among the district, Stanford University, University of San Francisco (USF), and United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) created the San Francisco Teacher Residency (SFTR) program. It’s similar to a medical residency, where residents serve under an assisting physician and gain the training required to practice medicine, but teacher residents work under the supervision of a veteran teacher while training to become teachers of record in SFUSD. The program has “graduated” 100 new teachers in the past five years. Of these, 96 percent are still teaching. That’s quite an accomplishment considering that nationwide, 20 percent of all new teachers leave the classroom within three years, and in urban districts like San Francisco, close to 50 percent of newcomers flee the profession during their first five years of teaching. Last year, 75 percent of the program’s residents were teachers of color, and 97 percent of program graduates were teaching in hard-to-staff schools or subject areas. Ashli Duncan is a proud participant of the program. An African American, she reflects the student population at El Dorado Elementary School, where she was a resident last year in the classroom of mentor teacher Anna Pepito. Duncan has no doubt that she’s learned more than the first-graders she helped teach last year. “It’s been an amazing experience,” says Duncan. “To stay with a class for an entire year and be part of their everyday learning was so valuable. I loved that…

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