A cohort of graduate students in education at Northern Arizona University spend their days teaching and their nights on required coursework. It’s part of a new program for future educators that aims to address the yearslong teacher shortage in Arizona.
The new two-year program is modeled after residencies used to train medical students. Arizona Teacher Residency Director Victoria Theisen-Homer said the shortage has less to do with a lack of teachers, and more to do with retention.
"We know that teachers who enter the profession without any preparation prior to becoming a teacher of record are 2.5 times more likely to leave in the first year alone," she said.
Theisen-Homer said the residency leaves teachers better prepared to run a classroom than previous methods of training.
"Anyone that’s going into a challenging and complex profession should have a lot of hands-on experience prior to becoming the only one making decisions," Theisen-Homer said.
Those who complete the program will receive their masters in elementary education from NAU.
