The Cambridge Faculty Association has obtained a one-year grant of $46,000 from the NEA's Great Public Schools Fund to create a "Teacher Candidate Residency" program for graduate-level students.
"We are proud of [Cambridge FA member] Colleen McDonald for taking on the issue of teacher preparedness. Her plan is different and exciting. With the high stakes attached to the APPR regulations, this type of experience for teacher candidates is needed more than ever," said Cambridge FA President Donna Phinney.
The grant will fund the planning work this year to create a viable teacher residency program for master's level graduate students at SUNY Plattsburgh.
A steering committee, made up of high-level partners and stakeholders, including Cambridge Central School District, Cambridge FA, NYSUT, SUNY Plattsburgh, Greater Capital Region Teacher Center and the State Education Department, among others, will start meeting in July and hope to submit a three-year implementation grant to NEA GPS next spring.
The committee will use the initial grant to fund its planning, provide stipends for teacher leaders involved in the work and visit and learn from residency programs around the country, among other items.
If additional funding is awarded, the program will start in September 2016 with three teacher residents embedded for two years in a classroom led by an effective or highly effective teacher.