Expanding Effective Teacher Residency Programs
Teacher preparation - pilot residency programs - expansion - appropriation. The act creates the teacher residency expansion program (program) in the department of education (department). The goal of the program is to identify and communicate to school districts, charter schools, and boards of cooperative services that operate public schools (local education providers) the best practices, effective strategies, and critical components of effective teacher residency programs and thereby facilitate expansion of the effective teacher residency programs across the state.
To implement the program, the department must contract with up to 3 institutions of higher education (institutions) and up to 3 alternative teacher programs (alternative programs), each of which is currently operating an effective teacher residency program with a local education provider. The institutions and alternative programs must expand their respective teacher residency programs with other local education providers as pilot programs that must include specified components. The institutions and alternative programs must share the specified components with the department, and the department must share them with other local education providers, institutions, and alternative programs that are not participating in the pilot programs. After the pilot programs have operated for a year, and annually thereafter, the department shall evaluate the success of the pilot programs based on specified criteria. The department will submit a report concerning the evaluation to the state board of education, the Colorado commission on higher education, the executive director of the department of higher education, the governor's office, and the education committees of the general assembly. The department will also post the report on its website.
The department will distribute to the institutions and alternative programs that contract with the department an amount to offset a portion of the costs of implementing the pilot program. The institutions and alternative programs must agree to provide matching funds equal to 100% of the amount that the department distributes to the institutions and alternative programs. The program is repealed in 5 years.
For the 2018-19 fiscal year, the act appropriates $600,000 to the teacher residency expansion program fund, which is created in the act. The department has continuous spending authority to distribute the money in the fund for purposes of the program.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)