By GREGORY ZELLER //
An Adelphi University teacher-training program with an eye on inner-city schools is recruiting its first cohort.
The university’s College of Education and Health Sciences is partnering with the New York City Department of Education on a new Urban Teacher Residency program that will help participants earn a master’s degree in education and gain New York State math or science teacher certification – all while focusing on the needs of NYC minority students.
Program participants will be specially trained to work in schools serving communities that are “historically marginalized by systemic inequities,” according to Garden City-based Adelphi. They’ll join a community of science, technology, engineering, art and math teachers committed to interdisciplinary STEAM curriculums, and benefit from professional-learning opportunities designed to support their individual growth and “cultural competence” – and to help them better understand “systemic inequities currently and historically embedded in the education system.”
Applications are now being accepted for the 2022 cohort, with “culturally competent future educators” – including recent college graduates and career-changing professionals – invited to apply.
Tracy Hogan: Panther pathway.
By focusing on the needs of inner-city students, the program will help a new generation of teachers earn the necessary degrees and credentials, with “intense clinical practice and comprehensive support” in the mix.
Before they’re even hired by an outside school, participants will apply classroom learning at Adelphi’s Manhattan Center, earning a salary and health-benefits eligibility along with individualized, targeted support from a personal teaching mentor.
That will be followed by post-residency support including job-placement assistance within the NYC school system and tips on nailing the interview process, with the ultimate goal of landing a full-time postgraduate teaching position.
Once hired by a city school, residents will teach a part-time course load “while engaging in the school community full-time,” Adelphi said, helping them hone their teaching skills via constructive feedback from program staff, faculty members at their new schools and fellow UTR graduate students.
By putting teachers in city schools, Adelphi is putting its reputation on the line – to date, 100 percent of Adelphi education students who completed a residency year have been hired as full-time teachers, according to the university.
It’s also creating a critical “teacher preparation pathway,” according to Science Professor Tracy Hogan of the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, part of Adelphi’s College of Education and Health Sciences.
“Teacher residency programs offer Adelphi students opportunities for increased innovation within a clinical practice setting, ultimately strengthening their own practices as new teachers,” Hogan added.
