Nearly one in eight American classrooms now has someone who is not fully certified or whose position remains vacant. About 411,500 positions are affected for the 2024-25 school year, according to the Learning Policy Institute. One program in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school district in North Carolina shows how this can be changed structurally: the teacher residency program maintains a 93 percent retention rate, keeping nearly all graduates in the profession long-term.
What a teacher residency is
The model applies medical training logic to teacher preparation. Just as a doctor completes a clinical residency after medical school before practicing independently, prospective teachers in a teacher residency program complete a full school year as intensive classroom practice. An experienced mentor teacher guides them continuously. Simultaneously, residents complete study modules directly linked to teaching practice.
The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County program, approved by North Carolina in 2023, deliberately targets career changers: teaching assistants, substitute teachers, and those switching professions who seek full certification. Program Director Karen Morris reported that three years after launch, 93 percent of graduates remained employed in the district. Pass rates on the state performance assessment reached 100 percent, compared to an 85 percent state average.
What national comparison data shows
Winston-Salem is no outlier. The Learning Policy Institute systematically evaluated residency programs. Result: residency graduates remain in the same district at 80 to 90 percent rates after three years, compared to around 66 percent for traditionally trained teachers. The three-year dropout rate is 16 percent versus 33 percent nationally. Approximately 440 residency programs now exist in 26 states and Washington D.C.
The critical variable: roughly 90 percent of annual U.S. teacher demand stems from attrition, not new positions. Preventing trained teachers from leaving during their first years addresses teacher shortages more efficiently at the root than any recruitment campaign.
Why teachers leave early and how residencies address this
Research identifies the most common reasons for early career exit: inadequate preparation for real classroom situations, lack of mentoring in the first year, and weak attachment to the specific school district. Residency programs address all three simultaneously. Graduates already know the school from a year of practice, have built a mentor relationship, and have managed discipline problems and parent conferences under guidance before assuming sole responsibility.
Notable too is the diversity profile: 45 percent of residency graduates are people of color, according to the Learning Policy Institute, more than double the 19 percent national teacher average. Schools in districts with high percentages of students from low-income households have disproportionately many open positions and recruit disproportionately from residency programs because these training pathways are embedded in exactly these regions.
Who follows next: England and the unsolved Germany challenge
Australia, Canada, and parts of the United Kingdom have already introduced or piloted residency models following the U.S. approach. In England, the Teaching School Hubs program launched in 2021, providing structured support for early-career teachers over several years with school-based mentoring at its center. Solid long-term retention data are not yet available; initial Department for Education evaluations suggest improved support during the first year.
Germany has no direct equivalent. The Referendariat serves a similar function but comes after completion of university study rather than alongside it and lasts 18 to 24 months. What is missing is not the idea of a practice phase, but its integration: intensive mentor support, close linking of theory and practice, and financial compensation allowing career changers to sustain their training.
Individual states experiment with alternative routes for career changers, but no systematically evaluated residency model on the Winston-Salem pattern exists here. The pattern of German teacher shortages is structurally similar to the U.S.: most vacancies result from early turnover, not insufficient new entrants. A solution holding 93 percent of trained teachers in the profession would be worth trying here as well.