Chicago Teacher Residency (AUSL) has been named among the top in the country for leading the way in maintaining selective academic admissions requirements and driving greater teacher diversity in the community by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and policy organization.
In a new NCTQ report, Teacher Prep Review: Program Diversity and Admissions (2021), AUSL’s Chicago Teacher Residency is among the top 5% of the 1,256 programs NCTQ evaluated across the country to earn the highest distinction. Programs that earn this distinction maintain sufficient academic standards for admission and enroll a cohort of future teachers that are both more racially diverse than the current teacher workforce in their state and reflect their local community’s racial diversity.
“Now more than ever, all children, regardless of their zip code, deserve a high-quality education. Their learning experience needs to be student-centered in a supportive learning environment, academically rigorous, that provides the supports needed to address the whole child. AUSL’s Chicago Teacher Residency (CTR) provides the tools, training, and knowledge needed to become a successful teacher. AUSL is committed to continually fight the achievement and opportunity gap that many of our students are facing,” stated Don Feinstein, Ph.D., AUSL Executive Director.
A diverse teacher workforce benefits all students, particularly students of color. Research has found that having same-race teachers increases student achievement, improves the likelihood of graduating high school and attending college, and can lead to lifelong benefits for students of color. At the same time, teachers who were themselves strong students are more likely to be effective teachers. Greater selectivity in admissions to preparation programs provides students with access to the highest quality teachers, helps to raise the status of the teaching profession, and supports the push for higher teacher salaries.
“We know that both teacher diversity and maintaining high academic standards for entry into teacher preparation are critical,” said Kate Walsh, NCTQ President. “Rather than lower admissions standards in a misplaced belief that it will lead to more diverse enrollment, teacher prep programs have to be intentional and strategic in their efforts to recruit and support aspiring teachers of color, and we are excited to highlight programs like Chicago Teacher Residency that are doing just that.”
In their report, NCTQ analyzed the diversity of each elementary teacher preparation program by comparing the diversity of the teacher candidates enrolled in the program to two factors: the diversity of the state teacher workforce and the diversity of the local community where the program is located. The methodology employed by NCTQ to determine if programs set adequate admissions standards gives programs multiple paths to meet the bar, including applicants’ SAT/ACT performance, audition requirements, minimum GPA for each applicant, or average GPA for each cohort of new teacher candidates.
Explore the findings and data for Chicago Teacher Residency (AUSL): www.nctq.org/TPRDiversityAdmissions2021
