Teach St. Louis

Founded In 2018, Teach St. Louis (formerly St. Louis Teacher Residency) launched to improve teacher quality and retention in St. Louis, a city where 40% of new teachers exit the classroom in their first three years. 

When we started this work, we knew that if students had an excellent teacher for five years in a row, achievement gaps would close.  To get there, we knew we needed to change the way we prepared teachers for the classroom and supported them once they got there.

So, Teach St. Louis partnered with National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) to develop and launch the first and only teacher residency program in the St. Louis region.  Our model focused on training aspiring teachers who were capable of accelerating student achievement from the moment they entered the classroom as a teacher of record.

Today, our programs focus not only on teachers new to the profession, but on teachers and educators at every stage of their career.  We have expanded our work and impact, partnering with schools and districts to ensure that more students in St. Louis are taught by a well-prepared, committed, and effective educator.

Our Outcomes

Since our launch, Teach St. Louis has trained and supported 203 aspiring educators, partnering with 53 schools and 13 districts throughout the region.  Data from our  first six  years indicates that our model significantly impacts students and schools.  In particular, Teach St. Louis has:

• Increased student achievement.  Overall, Teach St. Louis graduates consistently outperform their peers on state and district assessments. For the past two years, our teachers led their elementary students (on average) to 1.5 years of growth in reading.
• Boasted strong teacher retention.  86% of all Teach St. Louis graduates to-date are continuing to work as lead-teachers in a high-needs classroom.
• Maintained strong principal satisfaction.  Overall, 90% of principals report that our teachers are effective when compared to a “typical” first-year teacher and 100% report that they would hire a graduate to work at their school.
• Contributed to the diversity of the local teacher workforce.  52% of residents identify as teachers of color.  48% identify as Black or African-American.

Where We’re Going

Over the last three years, Teach St. Louis  has expanded our work as a capacity-builder, ensuring that our region’s schools are equipped with a well-prepared and effective teaching workforce.  Over the next five years, Teach St. Louis will…

• Accelerate student outcomes by developing the instructional capacity of teachers already working in partner schools.
• Double the size of our educator preparation programs, offering certification pathways to candidates new to the profession and those already working in classrooms.
• Build capacity through deeply embedded partnerships, supporting instructional leaders and principals in the schools where we work.

The Impact

By training and developing educators specifically for the St. Louis context, Teach St. Louis plays an integral role in addressing  educational inequities that persist in our region along racial and economic lines.  Over the next five years, Teach St. Louis will strengthen and expand our  educator preparation programs to certify 50 highly-qualified teachers for St. Louis public school classrooms each year.  STLTR will build capacity through deeply embedded school partnerships, supporting teachers and instructional leaders in the schools where we work. In this way, we will support over 125 educators and 8,000 students each year.