PRESS RELEASE
Los Angeles, CA (March 14, 2023) — KIPP SoCal, a network of 24 public charter schools throughout Southern California, was awarded the Teacher Residency Implementation Grant from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). The total grant amount of $1,125,000 will be used for one year of funding to double the upcoming Teacher Residency cohort for KIPP SoCal, which will begin in June 2023. This money will support local efforts to recruit and provide outreach and communications strategies to attract and retain a diverse teacher workforce that reflects the communities’ diversity.
"With the challenges plaguing California's schools, strong teachers are essential to our post-pandemic recovery. We must elevate the profession of teaching, giving educators the respect they are due and finding and supporting the qualified, dedicated, and representative teachers who positively shape and teach our students every day," said Angella Martinez, CEO of KIPP SoCal.
Teacher residency programs pair residents with a mentor teacher to get in-classroom experience, while concurrently receiving additional coursework to get their certification. The grant funding would allow KIPP SoCal’s teacher residency program to establish a cohort of 45 teacher residents and 45 mentor teachers in the 2023-24 school year. Each school will have two or three active teacher residents across 15 schools, which supports the evidence-based practice of having more educators in a classroom because it leads to increased student learning. The program allows residents to earn a California teaching credential through a powerful apprenticeship program focused on teacher and leadership development within a highly effective, hands-on, mentored, and formal learning environment.
The grant allows KIPP SoCal to recruit additional mentor teachers by offering $4,000 stipends and increasing stipends for teacher residents from $20,000 to $32,600. KIPP SoCal is seeking teachers who mirror the backgrounds of their students, and this added financial support helps lower the barriers of entry into the profession by helping cover living expenses and tuition costs. The grant would also provide each teacher resident $809 toward the cost of teacher preparation tests (the CSET, TPA and RICA), and will pay the $1,000 examination fees for residents’ preliminary credentials, while also covering $1,190 in administrative costs for each teacher resident.
“The increased funding will be a game changer for retention and for allowing aspiring educators to learn to teach in a big city like Los Angeles where the cost of living is prohibitively high,” stated Stephanie Kinoshita, Director, KIPP SoCal Public Schools Teacher Residency at Alder Graduate School of Education. “This monetary support is exceptional in making the teaching profession more attractive right now; it’s a vital part of solving the teacher shortage to attract more high-quality educators and to remove barriers of entry to increase the teacher pipeline.”
One hundred percent of residents who have participated in this program stay in the profession, and an average of 76% of those teachers teach in the KIPP SoCal network. Further, 25% of these teachers pursue hard-to-staff subject areas, such as special education or STEM. Mentor teachers are selected due to their track records of producing positive student outcomes and are given monthly professional development.
The Teacher Residency Program has had three graduating classes and is currently serving its fourth cohort of residents; the inaugural group began with 16 teacher residents across eight schools. Within those cohorts, 69% of residents identify as first-generation college students, 62% were Pell Grant recipients, 69% are bilingual and 80% identify as Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority (BIPGM). In the first three years of its existence, the Teacher Residency Program has supported 63 residents toward completion of preliminary credential requirements.
The Teacher Residency Program was founded in 2019 to support the growth of a pipeline of highly qualified teachers, specifically within high-need content areas and from the communities KIPP SoCal’s schools serve, with the core belief that teachers who reflect the school community positively impact student experiences in schools.
KIPP SoCal partners with Alder Graduate School of Education, an accredited Institution of Higher Education founded in 2010. Alder’s mission is to create opportunity and cultivate success for every student by recruiting and educating excellent teachers and leaders who reflect the school communities in which they’ll serve.
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About KIPP SoCal Public Schools
KIPP SoCal Public Schools is a nonprofit organization that operates 24 tuition-free, open-enrollment charter public schools, grades TK-8, within 20 Local Education Agencies. KIPP SoCal's award-winning schools educate students with a whole-child approach to learning and support over 10,000 students and 6,800 alumni to and through college.
KIPP SoCal Public Schools have won three National Blue Ribbon School awards, nine California Distinguished School awards, nine U.S. News & World Report “Best Schools” across the country awards, and 11 Top LA County Public School awards.
KIPP SoCal Media Relations
press@kippsocal.org, 213-312-5086