To better serve Harris County learners, HCDE leaders traveled to Chicago on May 20 to visit the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), share strategies with campus leadership and learn about the school’s teacher residency program.

Making the trip was HCDE Superintendent James Colbert Jr.; Jonathan Parker, assistant superintendent for academic support services; Dr. CJ Rodgers, assistant superintendent of education and enrichment; and Dr. Margaret Patton, director of curriculum and compliance services. They met with Martin Green, AUSL general manager, and Michael Whitmire, managing director of teaching and learning.

AUSL’s Chicago Teacher Residency is a one-year training program for professionals to transition into classroom teaching through a hands-on training model. Created in 2001, the nation’s first urban teacher residency program works in partnership with the Chicago Public School System.

Participants receive a scholarship to obtain a master’s degree from DePaul University and in-classroom experience from coaches and mentors. Upon completion of the one-year program, participants are fully licensed to teach in Illinois and prepared to be placed in full-time positions in Chicago Public Schools.

To date, AUSL has trained nearly 1,400 teachers and impacted more than 50,000 students across eight cities and 65 schools across the nation.