Licensure
Oklahoma's Resident Teacher Program
Purpose of Resident Teacher Program:
The Resident Teacher Program is a support system for all beginning educators. This includes beginning P-12 classroom teachers, speech language pathologists, and physical therapists. A Resident Teacher (RT) committee is assigned to give guidance and assistance to the beginning educator. The committee consists of a mentor teacher, administrator, and a higher education representative. It is important to have your direct administrator contact the university from which the beginning teacher graduated immediately upon employment to request an RT committee assignment. For out-of-state graduates, your administrator should contact the Oklahoma university closest to you to request an RT committee.
Resident Teacher Program:
The Resident Teacher Program is for any licensed individual with zero years of teaching experience employed for any portion of a day. Military service and university/college teaching does not count as experience for Resident Teacher purposes.
A Resident Teacher program can be completed in one school year if employed for any portion of a day for a minimum of 120 days. For Resident Teacher purposes only, every day of employment is counted as a day completed in the Resident Teacher Program. Example: employed for one sixth of a day for a minimum of 120 days. If a Resident Teacher is employed for less than 120 days during the school year, it will be necessary for a Resident Teacher Committee to continue with the Resident Teacher program during the next school year until a total of 180 days has been completed.
Long-term Substitutes:
A licensed teacher employed as a long-term substitute and teaching students in the same classroom on a long-term basis may participate in the Resident Teacher Program. A long-term basis is defined as a minimum of nine weeks.
Resident Teacher Committee and Responsibilities:
You will be assigned a Resident Teacher Committee of three professional educators: a mentor (classroom) teacher, an administrator (principal, assistant principal, or administrator designated by the local board), and a higher education representative (faculty from Oklahoma institution of higher education). This committee will ultimately make a recommendation for certification, second-year of RT support, or non-certification in Oklahoma.
There will be three committee meetings (all committee members, as well as the resident teacher, must be present to constitute an official meeting) and three independent observations by each committee member to complete a resident teacher program. Each committee member will complete an observation instrument reviewing the teacher's progress and formulate recommendations concerning teaching performance at each observation. The notes will be discussed with the resident teacher at each subsequent committee meeting. At the final committee meeting all copies of the observation instruments are given to the resident teacher. The committee will make a recommendation concerning certification.
If you have any questions about the Resident Teacher Program, please call Tonye Probst, Residency Coordinator, University of Oklahoma College of Education at 405-325-2108 or Linda Ruhman, Director, Resident Teacher Program at the State Department of Education at 405-521-3607.
For more information regarding Teacher Residency go the State Department of Education's website.