Texas is in the throes of a teacher supply problem, but one school is hoping its new program might be able to plug the gap. The University of Texas at Arlington has announced a new paid teacher residency program will launch in fall 2027. The hope is that maybe aspiring educators might be incentivized to stick around.

College students typically take on unpaid internships toward the end of their degree programs to get much-needed on-the-job experience. This, of course, can lead to problems: Students are already paying an arm and a leg for their education, and making them do work for free adds even more financial stress.

A teacher residency, like the one UTA is pitching, helps address that by paying future teachers while they obtain valuable in-classroom experience. The other bonus is that this experience may help solve, in part, the ongoing teacher turnover problem. According to UTA’s press release, unprepared teachers typically leave the profession after their first three to five years.

First steps

In an email to Chron, UTA reps clarified some of the specifics surrounding the residency. Around 10 students will make up the “first cohort” of the program during their final year. Participants will spend the entire academic year in a classroom, getting hands-on classroom experience and mentorship.

Salaries aren’t actually being handled by UTA, but by the participating school districts. It is expected, after the residency is completed, that students commit to teaching in their assigned district.

“What that commitment entails will vary district to district,” Carla Amaro-Jiménez, interimassociate dean, told Chron. “However, the commitment is important given that it allows districts to invest meaningfully in Teacher Residents through strong mentorship and support while at the same time building and reinforcing a sense of belonging as they grow with the district and not just train in it.”

Texas teacher shortage

Trinity Basin Preparatory in Fort Worth will be the pilot district when the residency officially launches. UTA said it is working with other schools to scale and adjust the residency to work with their needs.

Teacher turnover has been a hot topic since the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, a Texas Education Agency employee told state lawmakers that the rate of teachers leaving the profession stood at 12 percent, considerably high compared to the national rate of 7 to 8 percent.

UTA is currently in the R&D phase of its residency program before it officially launches next year. The hope is that in the next four years, the university is able to expand the residency and be able to place more qualified teachers in Texas classrooms.

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This article originally published at Why the University of Texas at Arlington wants to pay aspiring teachers.