Promoting Economic Equity through Pathways to the Classroom

Income inequality

Central LA South LA

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

The teaching residents in our program are often young adults, people of color, and first generation college graduates. We see a wealth of community capital in the classified staff employed at schools – the teaching assistants, behavior interventionists, and folks who work daily with students – who are equipped to represent and serve our students in the classroom and improve their economic standing if they only had access to affordable teacher preparation programs. We understand the power of representative teachers in the classroom and the need to build a robust, diverse pipeline of teaching residents, and yet still see the systemic barriers that our target population continues to face. After reviewing data from our first two years, it is clear that our population needs additional mental health, physical health, and socioemotional support. We are offering these in a replicable, scalable model for teacher preparation and economic advancement through our Avance Teacher Residency program.

Avance is a grow-your-own teacher residency designed to expand, diversify, and strengthen a pipeline of teacher development in Los Angeles. Our goal is to promote the economic advancement of classified staff by providing them with a pathway to a credential. As another extension of our mission, we also reach alumni to help them grow professionally and personally as they return as leaders within the classrooms where they grew up. We focus on developing staff members who know our communities well so all students – including dual language and special education students - learn in classrooms led by well-qualified, diverse teachers who believe in the ability of all students to achieve at high levels. Residents are paired with an expert mentor teacher at their school, where they receive coaching, workshops, and cohort-driven activities. At the same time, they enroll in a rigorous teacher preparation program at LMU to prepare them to be leaders in the classroom.
Our current focus is adding additional wraparound services as well as bolstering financial support to more effectively recruit, retain, and graduate residents. Our goal is to make participation in the residency more sustainable. Of the few residents who have not completed our program, the barriers they name are financial, mental health, or physical health issues. We will reinforce our program with new supports to help residents stay engaged and prepared to take on new challenges after graduation.

Avance offers our staff the same opportunity that we promise to our students: the chance to invest in themselves with the power of a quality education and create intergenerational change for themselves, their families, and their communities.
We believe that Avance will transform Los Angeles by offering economic advancement for staff who are dedicated to serving our students, yet too often struggle to make ends meet. Avance has grown to 21 school sites serving over 8,000 students from Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, STEM Prep, Para Los Niños, New LA Charter, Equitas, and Watts Learning Center schools. We are an active participant in collaboratives across LA County and see this as an avenue to build a scalable, replicable pipeline of teacher development. We are interrupting the teacher shortage while providing a strengths based, culturally relevant program that allows for more Angelenos to have access to a gainful career in the teaching profession.