Prepared to Teach, Bank Street College of Education
January 2022
Prepared for the United States Department of Education & the White House
Across the nation, teacher preparation programs and their aspiring teachers are supporting current staffing needs in K-12 education, in particular through yearlong, funded teacher residencies. Programs have the capacity to expand their instructional work with schools when their candidates have the financial supports they need to be able to dedicate more clinical practice hours to their placement sites. Whether serving as substitute teachers, meeting paraprofessional needs, acting as teacher assistants and tutors in classrooms, or supporting school and district instructional needs in other capacities, candidates’ clinical practice can be designed in powerful ways that both meet the supplemental learning needs resulting from the pandemic and ensure the country’s future teachers are well-prepared to disrupt historic
inequities in our educational system.
The programs highlighted in this document provided the following descriptions (in some cases edited for space consideration) to share highlights of key characteristics, types of staffing support, and considerations they believe are central to the successful implementation of these kinds of approaches. We would urge the federal government to find ways to support and promote models that create the kinds of partnerships that make these instructional roles an integral—and funded—part of teacher preparation.