Humanizing Teacher Preparation: Claremont Graduate University’s Teacher Residency
Claremont Graduate University (Claremont), a nonprofit, private institution in southern California, offers a flexible Teacher Education Program that is a 12- to 18-month, 100% online residency program. Claremont’s residency model was launched as a pilot in 2020 with 5 residents and grew to include 34 full-time residents in the 2022–23 academic year, when this study was conducted. Candidates earn a Master of Arts in Education in addition to a preliminary Multiple Subject (elementary), Single Subject (secondary), or Education Specialist (special education) credential.
Within the program, there are several timing, placement, and funding options for residents, of which the Claremont Fellows option was the most commonly used from 2020 through 2023. Even as a completely online program, the Claremont Fellows residency has been highly rated by graduates, with an average overall resident perception rating of 4.7 out of 5.0 on the 2021 California Commission on Teacher Credentialing statewide completer survey. After program completion, 96% of residents have been hired into the partner local education agencies (LEAs) where they completed their clinical placements or at other underresourced schools, and 100% of these teachers remained in the same school 2 years later. Claremont Fellows are a diverse group, with 75% identifying as people of color as of 2023. In addition, the Claremont Fellows have diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds and include a high proportion of first-generation college graduates.
Claremont’s program is built around a critical social justice approach and classroom ecology framework that centers relationships and interactions between and among students and teachers, emphasizing humanizing classroom experiences. Claremont’s core commitment is to ensure that teachers develop the social justice and evidence-based competencies and experiences they need to improve students’ agency and achievement. Claremont seeks to help teachers cultivate the ability to “actively seek and make change that disrupts any inhumane, unjust, and inequitable patterns and practices” within schools. The program emphasizes agency, human empathy, and relationships in addition to high expectations and strong instruction.
Case Study Methods
The case study presented in this report was conducted in 2023 and was guided by the overarching question “How do successful residencies do their work?” It is part of a larger multiple-case study of five California teacher residency programs across four different institutions of higher education, conducted with the goal of documenting the details of program infrastructure; program design; recruitment strategies; resident, mentor teacher, and graduate supports; partnerships; and financial sustainability. By understanding the details of how these residencies developed and operated their programming, we are able to share insights that can inform the design and continuous improvement of residency programs across the country.
Overview of Residency Features
Program Design. All of Claremont’s credential pathways required 36 units of coursework, which included the integrated master’s degree. Residents could begin the program in the spring or summer. Courses were taught using a combination of synchronous and asynchronous online formats. Synchronous classes typically met for 2 or 3 hours between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to accommodate residents’ clinical placement hours, which were required 5 days per week. The program emphasized agency, human empathy, and relationships in addition to high expectations and strong instruction. To this end, the Claremont Critical Social Justice Teaching Competencies explicitly addressed nine domains: (1) philosophy of education, (2) pedagogy, (3) science of learning (data-driven instruction), (4) social-emotional learning and experience, (5) funds of knowledge, (6) school climate and culture, (7) community and cultural wealth, (8) sociopolitical identity, and (9) worldview and global perspectives. All residents were required to complete the course TLP I: Teaching and Learning Process for Equity and Social Justice, which established the social justice framing for the program.
Claremont residents worked in their clinical placements full time, 5 days per week, which could look different depending on the host partner LEA. Residents who were grant-funded spent the full 5 days each week coteaching with their mentor teachers. However, Strategic Staffing partnership LEAs that launched in the 2023–24 academic year paid stipends for residents, and residents’ clinical schedules were based on specific LEA staffing needs. These Strategic Staffing Fellows still spent 5 full days each week at their sites, but how their time was allocated (e.g., as a paraeducator or substitute teacher) depended on the partner LEA. Claremont’s program featured strong integration between coursework and clinical experiences that were also aligned with the Critical Social Justice Teaching Competencies.
Recruitment and Admissions. Claremont focused recruitment in the local communities that surrounded its partner LEAs. Throughout the recruitment and admissions process, the program provided what it calls “white glove service,” which refers to a personalized, high-touch approach. The program worked with a dedicated recruiter in the university’s admissions office to support applicants through the admissions process. As part of the admissions process, Claremont required a small-group interview that was based on a shared reading and centered the program’s critical social justice focus.
Resident Supports. All full-time Claremont residents received stipends to help cover living expenses during their residency year. In addition, the university provided tuition subsidies for teacher preparation candidates that reduced tuition by half—a significant support given that the cost of private institutions like Claremont can be intimidating for potential residents. After the admissions phase, Claremont strives to maintain “high touch” and personalized support throughout the program so that residents have a humanizing experience. Support for residents included formal financial and academic assistance throughout the program based on relationships and as a way to be responsive to residents’ needs. Program leaders, instructors, and clinical coaches—who were called clinical faculty advisors at Claremont—actively monitored candidates’ academic, social, and emotional well-being using formative assessments, surveys, frequent check-ins, and course exit tickets.
Partnerships. Starting in 2022–23, Claremont moved toward a strategic staffing partnership model that provided residents with high-quality mentors and LEA-funded stipends, while also offering partner LEAs solutions for their immediate staffing needs related to paraeducators and substitute teachers. The models were tailored to each LEA based on what the partner needed, with residents apprenticing with their mentor teachers half of the time and working as paraeducators or substitute teachers for the other half. Partnerships were continually reinforced through activities such as an annual Advisory Council meeting and site visits to observe and talk with residents and mentor teachers. Claremont was looking to expand its Strategic Staffing partnerships, adding four more partner LEAs in 2024.
Organizational Culture. The program’s commitment to community and responsivity to partners, mentors, and residents also permeated the culture among the course instructors, clinical faculty advisors, and program leadership. The small size of the program faculty contributed to the sense of community among them, but the program also had practices that created an organizational context in which trust and community could grow. This sense of community was purposely created through collaboration, reflection, and team building, mirroring what the faculty expected the residents to do as well. Another Claremont residency practice that fostered and strengthened community among the program faculty was valuing everyone’s voice and contributions in a nonhierarchical way. All faculty, including adjunct instructors and clinical faculty advisors, were included in program meetings and were valued for their individual strengths.
Continuous Improvement. Faculty and program leaders engaged in collaborative solutions-oriented continuous improvement and modeled the learning orientation expected of the residents and mentors. Claremont used three main mechanisms to collect data and engage in continuous improvement: (1) annual Advisory Council meetings, (2) program surveys both during and at the end of each semester, and (3) weekly leadership meetings.
Financial Model. At the end of our case study research, the Claremont residency was headed toward a sustainable structure as it engaged more LEAs in deep, reciprocal partnerships, but program leaders have admitted that growth is still needed. A strong commitment to continuous improvement has compelled the program to look for ways to improve how residents experience the program and to find solutions for any issues and barriers that emerge.
Humanizing Teacher Preparation: Claremont Graduate University’s Teacher Residency by Cathy Yun and Julie Fitz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This research was supported by the Gates Foundation. Core operating support for LPI is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Sandler Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott. We are grateful to them for their generous support. The ideas voiced here are those of the authors and not those of our funders.
Cover photo provided by Claremont Graduate University Teacher Education Program.