Our Impact
Preparing the teachers Arizona needs to build the future Arizona deserves.
The Arizona Teacher Residency was created to address Arizona's teacher shortage, strengthen the educator workforce, and improve outcomes for students. Our data shows that investing in high-quality teacher preparation, meaningful support, and strong school partnerships is making a measurable difference for teachers, students, and communities across the state.
Program Highlights
- Teachers Who Reflect Arizona: We recruit and prepare educators who better reflect the students and communities they serve. Many residents come from the same communities where they teach, helping strengthen local schools and create a more representative teacher workforce.
- Preparation That Builds Confidence: Residents complete a year-long apprenticeship, earn a master's degree and teacher certification, and receive extensive coaching and mentorship before becoming teachers of record. Independent evaluation findings show AZTR graduates feel significantly better prepared to teach than other new teachers.
- Support That Keeps Teachers in the Profession: Through financial support, professional learning, induction coaching, and ongoing mentorship, AZTR helps new teachers navigate the challenging early years of teaching and build sustainable careers.
- Relationships That Improve Learning: Students consistently describe residents as trusted adults who help them feel seen, supported, safe, and successful. Research conducted with K-8 students suggests residents positively contribute to engagement, belonging, learning, and classroom climate during the residency year.
Preparing educators who reflect their students
By recruiting educators from a range of backgrounds, preparing highly effective teachers, and supporting them to remain in the profession, AZTR is helping create a stronger and more stable teacher workforce for Arizona's schools.
Residents come from a range of cultural backgrounds and over half are first-generation college students
35% of AZTR residents are men (compared to only 11% of elementary teachers nationwide)
Residents also represent a range of ages and life experiences, some coming from long careers in fields like the military, social work, accounting, aviation, or nursing.
Recruiting educators from a range of backgrounds and life experience matters because teachers impact student achievement more than any other school factor. Teachers who reflect and understand their students have been shown to improve their educational outcomes.
Benefits of AZTR
The impact of AZTR extends beyond certification and employment. We are building a pipeline of highly prepared educators who reflect their communities, stay in the profession, and help students feel seen, supported, and empowered to succeed. By investing in teachers today, we are strengthening Arizona's classrooms for generations to come.
In their third year of leading their own classroom, 95% of AZTR graduates are still teaching.
Two Teachers. One powerful classroom model. In interviews with over 100 K-8 students, most reported meaningful benefits from having both an ST and a resident supporting them.
100% of AZTR graduates who completed a survey conducted by an external evaluator, American Institutes for Research (AIR), reported feeling prepared in the essential areas of teaching. This percentage was significantly higher than other new teachers.
100% of AZTR grads also reported confidence in their ability to motivate students, support learning, and address classroom challenges in their first year. This proportion was significantly higher than other new teachers.