School Partnerships

Urban Teachers is committed to partnering with high-need urban schools. Prior to the Residency year, the Site Team works with partner schools to select Residents based on several criteria, including district needs and participant experience. While participants’ preferences are ideally considered, Urban Teachers cannot guarantee that Residents will be selected into a specific grade level, content area, school site, or district. The Urban Teachers Site Team works to communicate school selections by the conclusion of the Summer Institute.

Urban Teachers requires participants to make a four-year (4) commitment to the program and, when possible, to their school. For many, the years as a teacher of record are completed at the same school as the Residency year. In other instances, however, a participant’s Fellow years may be completed in a different partner school from their Residency year school due to a variety of circumstances, including for example if the participant’s former school did not have a teaching vacancy in their certification area or if they received Urban Teachers’ approval to transfer to a new partner school upon the conclusion of the school year.

If a participant is not hired or rehired by their school for the following school year through no fault of the participant and is otherwise in good standing with Urban Teachers’ performance expectations and program requirements, Urban Teachers will make reasonable efforts to help them secure a new position with a different partner school.  If despite such efforts, the participant still is unable to secure an approved position at a partner school by the start of the next school year, the participant will be automatically dismissed from the program. In some districts, an unsatisfactory evaluation or a principal’s decision to not renew a teacher’s contract makes the teacher ineligible to teach anywhere in that district. Such cases, though rare, typically result in dismissal from the program.

Participants who are dismissed by their school during the school year will be eligible for dismissal from the Urban Teachers program, pending a panel review. Participants who resign from their school without written approval from their site Executive Director or Director will be automatically dismissed from the Urban Teachers program for not maintaining good standing at the school site.

SCHOOL TRANSFERS 

All school selection or hiring decisions must be approved by the Site Team. Should a participant wish to transfer to a new school, they must submit an official School Transfer Request through a request process that becomes available at the start of each Spring semester. Participants who leave their school and accept employment at another school site without written approval from their site Executive Director or Director are subject to automatic dismissal from the Urban Teachers program. (Refer to the School Transfer Policy for more information.)