Read This: Should We Require Residencies for all New Teachers?

Should new teachers be required to do residencies, similar to med school grads, before they can become practicing teachers of record?

In the September issue of Kappan magazine, the president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), Ron Thorpe, argues that new teachers entering the profession should go through a residency program similar to that required for med school graduates before they can be full practitioners. Thorpe makes a number of compelling and controversial points in the article“Residency: Can It Transform Teaching The Way It Did Medicine?“

Among the questions Thorpe poses and answers:

Should the education profession push for universal residency for teachers? What would it look like? How would it affect student learning and the basic culture of the teaching profession? Given that it would substantially raise the bar for entrance to the profession, what effect would it have on the workforce? How would we pay for it?

I believe these points deserve thoughtful debate, what about you?