Bachelor of Science

Urban Teacher Residency Program

The Urban Teacher Residency Program is a special cohort designed for undergraduate students within the Elementary Education program. This program is designed to develop exemplary elementary teachers who target enhanced student learning. Students will learn to teach by taking courses that are highly embedded in elementary classrooms and schools, and often co-taught by elementary school faculty.

In this full-time program, students proceed through the program in a cohort and are required to complete all the required courses each semester with a grade of "C-" or better and a GPA of at least 2.5 in order to progress to the next semester. Students who do not meet this requirement will be required to meet with their academic advisor and/or the department’s Professional Standards Committee and will not be able to enroll in any of the subsequent cohort classes until the class is offered again in the next cohort.

Program Highlights

  • Gain first-hand training in field work
  • Learn a practice for teaching that is innovative, inclusive, integrated, and inquiry-based
  • Learn from a curriculum that emphasizes inquiry, inclusion, integration and innovation in each of the elementary subject areas
  • Participate in courses that are reserved for cohort participants
  • Integrate technology into all elements of teaching and learning
  • Participate in a year-long residency in a local K-5 classroom
  • UTRPP integrates coursework & fieldwork, giving residents 2,000+ hours of mentoring in K-5 classrooms
  • Hours are 7:30am to 3:30pm M-F
  • $3,200 scholarship each year (2 years)
  • Guaranteed teaching position in Hillsborough County upon graduation
  • Innovative STEM partnership with Hillsborough County Public Schools
  • Award winning K-5 teacher preparation program
  • Recipient of a prestigious Federal i3 grant

The Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program (UTRPP) is an innovative pathway to teacher certification that was created through a partnership between Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) and the University of South Florida (USF).  UTRPP moves beyond the traditional models of teacher preparation and provides an innovative approach to preparing teachers to be effective in urban, Title 1 schools. Six urban elementary schools are part of the UTRPP network — the three on or near the USF campus and three within five miles of campus. These schools serve a student population of which 90% or more qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and 90% are students of color.

Clinical practice is at the heart of UTRPP, and we have paid careful attention to the balance between increased quantity and quality of the clinical experience. This has required our team of university-based and school-based teacher educators to collaboratively revise our program from what we knew teacher preparation to be to what we want it to become.

USF and HCPS collaborated to design the UTRPP course content and sequence. Using what we refer to as the i4 model (innovation, integration, inclusion, and inquiry), we plan coursework that includes these components while addressing the developmental trajectory of a preservice teacher. Though we want innovation, integration, inclusion, and inquiry to be evident throughout the two-year program, there are semesters in which one strand is stronger than the other three in order to zoom in on the aspects of that strand that support K-5 student learning.

In 2014, our partnership received national recognition for this innovation and was awarded a 3.4 million dollar i3 grant from the U. S. Department of Education, which continues to support our program. In addition, more than 45 members of our community have been selected to present on our work at more than a dozen national and international conferences.  We are being recognized for placing the needs of elementary students at the center of our program and integrating in-service and preservice teacher professional development.  As our motto says, we truly are Better Together.

Signature Pedagogies of the Residency Experience Include:

  • Co-teaching
  • Integrated assignments
  • Teaching rounds
  • Content-focused coaching
  • Quad-model of clinical practice
  • STEM professional learning communities
  • Teacher leadership

Useful Links

Application Requirements

Eligible participants for the Urban Teacher Residency Program should meet the following requirements:

  • Admission to the Elementary Education program for the Fall semester
  • Register as a full time student for five semesters
  • Be available to take courses between 7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (including summer semesters), and be available to work at an assigned school for a year-long residency
  • Be dedicated, focused, organized, and flexible
  • Have access to an iPad and/or laptop computer to participate in a highly rich, technology-driven learning and teaching environment. Most of the software programs used are designed for the Mac platform. 
  • Application procedures and forms

Contact

For questions about the admission requirements or application procedures please contact:

College of Education Student Academic Services
Phone: 813-974-2979
Or schedule an appointment

For other questions about the program, please contact program co-coordinators:

Dr. Sarah van Ingen, Program Coordinator
Email: vaningen@usf.edu