Purpose

we believe the next generation of Boston’s teachers are in the schools, homes, and communities of Boston right now

Boston Public School’s Teacher Pipeline Programs (BPS TPP) are part of the larger strategy of the RCD to address the demand for highly qualified, equity-minded and racially literate teachers for Boston’s classrooms. Our core belief is that the next generation of Boston’s teachers are in the schools, homes, and communities of Boston right now. This permeates all the work we do.

BPS TPP are multigenerational, community-based teacher preparation programs for preservice and in-service teachers. We represent the third generation of teacher preparation programs in the US -Teacher 3.0 (Kretchmar & Zeichner, 2016)- where our candidates are prepared to work in solidarity with their families and students by interrupting racism and interrogating anti-Blackness at personal and systemic levels using the critical literacy of race (Sealey-Ruiz 2020).

Our teacher preparation programs are unique: we are among the few nationally and certainly the state’s only locally embedded, state-approved, multigenerational, “grow your own”; educator preparation program. The overarching mission of the BPS TPP is to support racially, linguistically and culturally diverse teachers by providing a coherent and comprehensive pathway from paraeducator to professional teacher. Keeping students at the center of our work, we aim to cultivate teachers who empower young people to be change agents for the city’s communities. This is work we know can happen in classrooms where teachers are committed, responsive, and reflective of the students and their various cultures, heritages, backgrounds and languages. BPS TPP’s three overarching goals are:

● develop and sustain an affordable pathway to an advanced degree for BPS teachers of color;

● increase the number of BPS teachers who reflect the linguistic, racial, and ethnic diversity of Boston’s students through an accessible pathway and supportive programming, and

● improve the ability and agency of BPS teachers to center race and racism through culturally affirming pedagogy and practice