Legislation Examples
Service Scholarships and Loan Forgiveness
North Carolina Teaching Fellows
Senate Bill 252 re-established the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program highlighted in Chapter 1. The legislation from 2017 is notable for its inclusion of the following research-aligned features of effective service scholarships and loan forgiveness programs:
Establishes a significant recurring investment of $6 million for program operation and forgivable loans and provides for a yearly loan of up to $8,250 for selected fellows, a total investment that could reach as high as $33,000 over the 4 years of the program and that would cover a substantial portion of teacher preparation costs.
Outlines a range of selection criteria to recruit academically strong individuals into the program, including a student’s GPA, performance on relevant career and college readiness assessments, experience, accomplishments, and other criteria correlated with highly effective teachers.
Seeks to address persistent teacher shortages in the state by targeting financial incentives toward individuals seeking certification in STEM and special education.
Provides for a reasonable service commitment that requires fellows to repay each year of loan forgiveness by teaching in a North Carolina public school for 2 years.
Incentivizes fellows to teach in low-performing schools across the state by providing for accelerated loan repayment. By teaching at a low-performing public school, fellows can repay a year of loan forgiveness with 1 year of teaching service.
Requires annual data reporting on the program, including demographics, field of preparation, and educator preparation program attended; placement and repayment rates; and retention rates.
Creates a revolving state fund to support the program.
While the North Carolina Teaching Fellows legislation provides a strong model, there remain a few key areas in which the model could be further strengthened to better support a sustainable and racially diverse teaching workforce:
To improve the recruitment of racially diverse teaching fellows, legislation could encourage the recruitment of students of color, as a prior version of the program did, or include specific recruitment targets for future cohorts.
Further, to support these targeted recruitment efforts, legislation could also require the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Commission to partner with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) in the state. Currently, the commission is responsible for selecting and partnering with five educator preparation programs in higher education, but none of the current partners are HBCUs or MSIs.
Teacher Residencies
California Teacher Residency Grant Program
California Education Code Section 44415 et seq., enacted in 2018 as part of the California state budget, established the California Teacher Residency Grant Program and provides local education agencies (LEAs) with financial support to expand or develop teacher residency programs. The legislation incorporates several research-based characteristics of high-quality teacher residency programs:
In order to develop and implement programs of preparation and mentoring for residents, sponsoring LEAs (districts, counties, or charter schools) must have a strong partnership with an approved teacher preparation program and may include other community partners as well. The legislation requires sponsoring partnerships to contribute a 100% match for each state grant dollar received.
State grant funds provide $20,000 per resident, which can be used for teacher preparation costs, mentor teacher stipends, resident stipends, and mentoring and beginning teacher induction costs. Smaller capacity-building grants are also available to support planning for new residency programs.
The legislation requires teacher residents to teach at least half-time for at least 1 full school year alongside an experienced mentor teacher (who is the teacher of record) while engaging in initial preparation coursework.
Residents must commit to teaching in the sponsoring district for at least 4 years following the residency’s completion.
Mentors must be fully certified and have a minimum of 3 years of successful teaching in the shortage area they will be mentoring in, as well as receiving specific training for their role. The legislation provides for mentor compensation, release time, or both.
The legislative language ensures that funding specifically targets programs that seek to address persistent teacher shortages in the state (special education, bilingual education, and STEM). Fifty million dollars is allocated to recruit special education teachers and support their preparation, and $25 million is allocated for bilingual education and STEM teacher preparation.
In addition, grants given under the program intend to prioritize funding for districts with high-need schools; that is, schools in which 50% or more of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, that have a cumulative teacher attrition rate that exceeds more than 20% over the 3 preceding school years, or are located in rural or densely populated areas.
The legislation ensures residents are provided with a range of research-aligned supports, including grouping in cohorts, placements in teacher schools or professional development programs, comprehensive coursework, and mentoring and beginning teacher induction.
While the California Teacher Residency Grant Program legislation provides a strong example of teacher residency legislation, there is one key area in which the model could be improved to better support a racially diverse teaching workforce:
The model could provide for a specified or minimum stipend for residents and ensure that repayment requirements—should candidates not complete their service obligation—are bureaucratically manageable for both programs and candidates and aligned to the amount of stipend provided.
Mentoring and Induction Programs
Connecticut TEAM Program
The Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) program was first established in 2009 by Section 10–145o of Chapter 166 of the Connecticut General Statutes. The legislation reflects several research-aligned elements of high-quality induction programs:
Under the legislation, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) must partner with LEAs and higher education institutions to establish and administer a 3-year teacher education and mentoring program that includes both new teacher mentoring and performance-based components.
Legislation establishes important mentorship supports and requirements that are aligned with research, include the following:
The CSDE, in collaboration with other stakeholders, supports the training of mentors and provides professional development and training for regional mentors working at the district level.
The mentors must hold a valid teaching certificate, have at least 3 years of teaching experience in Connecticut, and be assigned no more than 3 beginning teachers.
The legislation provides for minimum mentor stipends of $500 per beginning teacher a mentor works with, which can be paid through the recent $1.5 million in state funding.
Mentors are required to provide a minimum of 50 contact hours to each beginning teacher during the program.
District plans must also set aside districtwide mentoring days that can be used for observations, one-on-one discussions, small group meetings, professional development days, and regional educational service center training sessions.
The legislation requires the local and regional boards of education to organize mentoring opportunities by grade, department, or specialty area.
Under TEAM, beginning teachers complete up to five professional growth modules that provide a framework of support for new teachers: (1) classroom environment, (2) planning, (3) instruction, (4) assessment, and (5) professional responsibility.
The modules are aligned with the state’s Common Core of Teaching, and all beginning teachers are required to complete the modules in order to earn a full provisional educator certificate.
The legislation provides $1.5 million in state funding to the CSDE to help offset the TEAM program’s costs at the local level. This state-level investment is an important step in ensuring equitable access to high-quality induction programs for all teachers across the state.
Additionally, all LEAs receive funding directly from the CSDE based on the number of beginning teachers in each LEA.
While the Connecticut TEAM program is a promising strategy that provides state-level funding and guarantees multiple years of support for new teachers, there is one area in which the model could be improved to ensure future progress and program sustainability:
The model could better articulate specific elements of the new teacher’s relationship with the school. Research shows that high-quality induction programs provide new teachers in the same subject with a common planning time and regularly scheduled collaboration with other teachers. The current model could be explicit in requiring collaboration between teachers in their respective schools and could better support a sense of community outside the mentor–mentee relationship.