What does it actually take to solve the teacher shortage? Not quick fixes or silver bullets, but sustained, systemic partnership between districts and universities?

In this episode, Teresa Morales Young, who oversees the Department of Teacher Development at Fresno Unified School District, shares the story of building one of the most comprehensive teacher pipeline programs in the country. Over 15 years, Teresa has worked alongside university partners to create 12 interconnected pathways—from high school teacher academies to residency programs to instructional coaching—that support educators across their entire career lifecycle.

Drawing from her experience leading partnerships with four universities and securing $60 million in grant funding, Teresa reveals how Fresno Unified transformed teacher preparation by getting granular about what great teaching looks like in their context. She discusses the critical role of superintendent and board support, the power of 1-to-1 coaching for all 600 new teachers, and why authentic classroom experiences matter more than standardized assessments. Through the lens of partnership, patience, and staying committed through hard conversations, Teresa demonstrates how districts can move from reactive hiring to proactive talent development.

Key Insights

• Partnership Requires Humility: Why effective university-district collaboration starts when preparation providers acknowledge they're producing teachers for specific contexts, not just credentials
• Board Champions Matter: How consistent board-level advocacy and funding support enables long-term pipeline building beyond individual initiatives
• The Five-Year Vision: Why meaningful partnership takes years of calibration around what "good teaching" actually looks like in practice
• Coaching as Retention: How providing all 600 new teachers with 1-to-1 instructional coaches focused on data analysis, lesson planning, and feedback drives exceptional retention rates
• Stacked Programs, Advanced Learning: Why teachers moving through multiple pipeline programs need increasingly sophisticated coursework, not repetition
• Authentic Experience Gaps: The challenge of giving teacher candidates genuine decision-making autonomy while they're still learning in mentor teachers' classrooms
• Multiple Measures Over Testing: Why performance-based assessment and observation better capture teaching quality than standardized exams

Resources:

• Contact Teresa: teresa.morales@fresnounified.org
• Fresno Unified Teacher Pipeline Programs

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