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How the Denver Teacher Residency Transformed that City's Teacher Pipeline

For a decade, the Denver Teacher Residency (DTR) was one of the country’s leading teacher training programs, providing hundreds of highly qualified, classroom-ready teachers for Denver Public Schools (DPS). While the residency ceased operations last spring, DTR proved that the key elements of the residency model can be adopted and incorporated into district talent management systems at scale as DPS is now creating residency-like programs throughout the city in partnership with colleges, universities, and other providers.

To capture DTR’s influence and impact on Denver’s teacher talent pipeline, and the lessons learned from its decade of success, NCTR is publishing today a new research brief, Building Systems of Innovation at Scale: A Look at How the Denver Teacher Residency Transformed the Human Capital Pipeline in Denver Public Schools. The report, researched and written by Dr. Shari Dickstein-Staub and Dr. Sarah Scott Frank, highlights key lessons learned by DPS, DTR, and other stakeholders in order to inform districts, universities, and others that may be interested in designing or refining a residency program as a human capital strategy. The report was made possible with a grant from the Silver Giving Foundation.

“Ultimately, this is the goal of the teacher residency movement – to systematically improve teacher preparation so that all students have access to great teachers,” said Anissa Listak, NCTR's founder and CEO. “The Denver Teacher Residency did exactly that, which makes it one of the most transformational residency programs to date.” DTR’s 10-year history spans a crucial decade in teacher preparation. Across the United States, districts and states worked to meet the challenge of having a highly qualified and skillful teacher in every classroom while the range of pathways to teacher certification, including residency programs, increased dramatically. Embedding DTR in DPS empowered the district to sit in the trenches of teacher training. Now, DPS is using the tools, systems, and lessons learned from this experience to scale residency-like programs for new teachers district-wide.

DTR, in partnership with the University of Denver Morgridge College of Education, finishes with hundreds of residency-trained graduates teaching across the district. They are equity minded, well-trained, and committed to Denver students. Many have moved into school leadership positions. The following are five additional DTR legacies that will endure across Denver schools:

1. DPS aims to create a mentor training process that builds on DTR’s legacy of thorough and strategic support for mentor teachers.
2. DPS will continue its commitment to increasing the number of teachers of color and will help partners understand key levers that have been successful for recruiting diverse candidates.
3. DTR’s Framework for Equitable Teaching will endure as it provides a model of coherence between university coursework and resident learning.
4. Denver’s year-long principal residency program was informed by the design of the Denver Teacher Residency.
5. The Denver Student Teacher Residency grew out of DTR’s model of a year-long DPS residency, and it will continue going forward.

The next phase of the district’s work to scale the residency experience is to partner with 11 colleges, universities, and other teacher certification providers across the region. DPS’ hope is that, regardless of which teacher preparation program candidates attend, the clinical experience in a Denver public school will be similarly grounded in the tenets of the Denver Teacher Residency – the program that brought the district some of its strongest teachers and teacher leaders.