Urban Teacher Residency United
Grant Size: $1,230,000 (1st grant $215k; 2nd grant $115k; 3rd grant $900k)
Grantee Since: 2006
Grant Objective: Found organization, build capacity.
Urban Teacher Residency United (UTRU) was founded by the nation’s three premiere teacher residency programs (Academy for Urban School Leadership in Chicago, the Boston Teacher Residency and the Boettcher Teachers Program in metro-Denver). The network’s mission is to build and manage a national partnership of high performing teacher residencies dedicated to accelerating student achievement through the training, support and retention of excellent urban teachers. To support its partners, UTRU establishes residency standards, synthesizes and communicates best practices, partners with emerging residency programs to ensure success via a two-year long institute, develops and implements common program evaluations, and pursues national policy initiatives to support the introduction and support of high-quality residencies. In addition to working closely with the founding programs to codify a common set of standards to which all members need to adhere, UTRU is supporting over a dozen districts nationwide to create, launch and sustain quality teacher residency programs.