OUR MISSION

To strengthen California’s capacity to provide equity-driven, clinically rich teacher preparation and support.

WHAT WE DO 
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The Lab fosters a vibrant learning community committed to operationalizing equity through common program quality standards and state resources – leading to a powerful system of California teacher residency programs. The Lab ensures that all California teacher residencies receive coherent, aligned, needs-based, research-based, developmentally appropriate support and technical assistance.  We serve as a conduit for California teacher residency partnerships to easily access a constellation of support that builds their capacity to design effective and sustainable teacher residency programs. Core to the Lab’s work is the Labs 10 Key Characteristics of Effective Residencies.  These have informed the planning and direction of CTC Grant Funded Teacher Residencies since Fall of 2021.  The Statewide Residency Technical Assistance Center (SRTAC) is our active state-wide collaborator. SRTAC provides targeted, developmentally appropriate technical assistance to program participants aligned with residency program outcomes.
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OUR IMPACT
  • Since 2019, the Lab has supported 97 local education agencies and university residency partnerships
  • Between 2019-2022,  959 residents graduated from California Residency Programs. 65% of resident graduates are BIPOC, outpacing the state’s teacher average of  37%.
  • As enhanced members of the Lab’s membership program, 16 residency partnerships accessed and received personalized 1:1 coaching 
  • The Lab hosts two in-person conferences and 5 virtual events a year 
  • 88% of residency graduates have been retained after 3 years of teaching
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JOIN US!

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The goal of The Residency Lab is to serve as a conduit for California teacher residencies to easily access a constellation of supports based on ongoing assessments of development and need. Sign up for our monthly E-Blast to ensure you receive upcoming events and resources!
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The Residency Lab Equity-focused Membership

The Lab envisions a California where all students– especially students of color, who have been underserved by our public school system for far too long– have powerful, highly prepared, highly supported, and highly representative/diverse teachers. Teachers who advance educational equity, inclusion, and justice, and who provide learning support that ensures every student reaches their full potential in and out of the classroom.

In service to this vision, the Lab supports statewide teacher residency programs to fulfill their ability “to effectively recruit, develop support systems for, provide outreach and communication strategies to, and retain a teacher workforce that reflects a local educational agency community’s diversity,” by ensuring that equity and justice is defined and advanced at all levels of residency work. For more information on the Equity Deep Dive membership, please contact, Dr. Heather Michel.

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Thank you for attending the 2024 Annual Symposium in May!

We are pleased to have welcomed over 130 educators to Los Angeles for the 2024 Residency Lab Annual Symposium on May 2nd and 3rd! The Residency Lab would like to thank you again for joining us at the 2024 Residency Lab Annual Symposium. Our Symposium this year brought together both residency programs and experts to engage in two days of learning and inspiration. It was a pleasure to see you all in person! We hope you left feeling energized and inspired in your residency work centered in the 10 Characteristics and found partnership and leadership from other programs doing the work. As a reminder, you can find all participant resources from the event here. Read about more highlights and resources here in our newsletter.

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Start planning for the 2024-2025 school year – see our lineup of events below! More information coming soon.

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Grant Overview Drop-Ins – Participants will receive an overview of the grant opportunities, deadlines, and support to prepare strong teacher residency grant applications to submit to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC).

Grant Writing Support Sessions – Participants who plan to apply to the grant program, will receive grant writing support and resources from a Residency Lab Coach. Coaching and support will be provided in a small group or one-on-one setting.

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View a recap of our 2023 California Teacher Residency Annual Symposium! 

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WE BELIEVE that all professional support for teacher residencies in California should be:

    • research-based and tied to what we know makes teacher residencies in California most powerful and sustainable; 
    • long-term and responsive to development-specific needs;
    • rooted in equity; and 
    • aligned to and supportive of a cohesive, statewide system of teacher recruitment, preparation, and development. 
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WE SERVE as a conduit for California teacher residencies to easily access a constellation of supports based on ongoing assessments of development and need.
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WE DEVELOP the capacity of California teacher residencies to provide context-specific professional support to one another, building a system that over time evolves to support and sustain itself. Read more about our plans: Building a Statewide Teacher Residency Support System 
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BACKGROUND

In August 2021, Lab leadership and experts in residency development updated the California-specific set of characteristics that all teacher residencies in the state will be expected and supported to embody over time, based on research and practitioner expertise and aligned with the statutory definition of teacher residencies. This update ensures residency programs are supported to implement “local efforts to recruit, develop support systems for, provide outreach and communication strategies to, and retain a diverse teacher workforce that reflects a local educational agency community’s diversity,” as stated legislation. 

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

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The Residency Lab (Lab) is proud to partner with districts and universities across the state of California to diversify the teacher workforce in service of students. The Lab is in California and has team members across the state to support residency programs to recruit, train, and retain teachers of color. We understand the California context and communities and are here to support residency programs across the state.

CURRENT AND PAST FUNDERS

ADDITIONAL PARTNERS

Our Residency Lab partnerships across the state! 

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The Statewide Residency Technical Assistance Center (SRTAC) is our active state-wide collaborator. SRTAC provides targeted, developmentally appropriate technical assistance to program participants aligned with residency program outcomes. This center represents a partnership among five County Offices of Education (COE), The Residency Lab, WestEd, and UCLA Teacher Education Program. Its primary goal is to provide targeted, developmentally appropriate technical assistance and comprehensive support to residency programs, catering to both Teacher and Counselor residencies across California. 

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Mixed Media

Tools

CTC Website

  • Commission on Teacher Credentialing Teacher Residency Grant Program Website – funding for competitive grants to support a collaborative partnership between an eligible Local Education Agency (LEA) or a consortium of LEAs partnering with one or more Commission-approved teacher preparation programs offered by a regionally accredited institution of higher education (IHE) to expand, strengthen, improve access to, or create teacher residency programs.

Fact Sheets

View a recap of our 2023 Teacher Residency Annual Symposium! 

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View “Time for a Hard Re-set” Revisioning Education for Equity

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In our first year of building our residency program, we had some knowledge about residencies and strongly believed in the purpose, but we didn’t quite know where to go from there. We found the support and guidance we needed through participating in the Residency Lab. The Lab provided experts who didn’t just present ideas; they actually met with us and provided assistance that met our exact needs. Most importantly, the Lab has served as a networking opportunity to connect us with people up and down the state who have experienced similar challenges. – Karin Compise, Resident @ TCSJ

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The Residency Lab supported the development and refinement of our systems and structures needed to create an effective teacher residency program. The foundation is set in Oakland, thanks to the CA Lab. So now, if and when OTR leadership changes, the residency will continue strong thanks to this strong foundation. – Zaia Vera, Oakland Teacher Residency

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As we reach out and recruit teachers in the residency program that reflect the student populations that they will work with, we’ve learned that organizing the support and emotional needs of aspiring teachers of color is paramount to their success. We’ve also learned that by listening and opening up to the discussions of race and equity as a team with mentors, student teachers, supervisors, and university instructors, we will have better success in retaining teachers of color. – North Coast Teacher Residency

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