The University of Texas Permian Basin’s College of Education has been selected by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to participate in the TEA’s Principal Residency Grant initiative for 2023-24 through UTPB’s Master of Arts (M.A.) in Educational Leadership online graduate degree program with Texas Principal as Instructional Leader certification preparation.
As a Vetted Principal Residency Program, UTPB’s College of Education will partner with public school districts and charter schools to provide principal residency opportunities for eligible candidates. In partnership with those districts, our program will support candidates through a full-time, yearlong residency in which they will be consistently engaged in authentic experiences focused on best practices in campus leadership. Because we are cognizant that school leaders play an important role in shaping the educational experiences of students, staff, and teachers, our faculty will partner with current campus and district-level leadership in grantee districts to ensure each resident possesses and applies requisite knowledge, skills, dispositions, and diversity proficiencies throughout their clinical experience. We will accomplish this through our structured courses, embedded learning experiences, collaboration between program and district leadership, and supportive supervision for residents during the year-long residency.
“The College of Education was previously selected to be on the TEA’s Vetted Teacher Residency Programs list, and this has opened the door for us to begin working with a number of our rural ISDs in offering teacher residencies,” said Dr. Larry Daniel, Dean of the College of Education. “Getting accepted to the Vetted Principal Residency Programs list will likely have a similar result, and we are very excited about it! The opportunity to provide our principal candidates with a year-long residency experience means that they will be effectively prepared for the full range of responsibilities encountered by a building-level administrator. This recognition fits with the College of Education’s larger effort to continually improve the work we do in preparing professionals.”
This opportunity is well-supported as grantee districts are eligible for TEA grant funds of up to $70,000 per resident intern to help pay for their salaries, tuition, and principal certification exams. The next round of grants will be awarded for the 2023-24 academic year, and districts must complete and submit a grant proposal to be eligible. Applications will open this fall.
Kevin Badgett, Associate Professor and Department for Chair Educational Leadership will be a district’s initial point of contact at UTPB and will be assisted by Dr. Ethel Arzu, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership.
UTPB is one of only 19 Texas universities and Education Service Centers to have an educator preparation program approved for the 2023-24 TEA Principal Residency Grant cycle.
School districts and charter schools interested in partnering with UTPB should contact Dr. Kevin Badgett, Associate Professor and Department Chair Educational Leadership, at 432.552.2140 or badgett_k@utpb.edu.
For more information on the residency grant application, districts should contact Ebony Love, TEA educator preparation capacity building specialist, at ebony.love@tea.texas.gov.
