U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Scott Tipton have introduced a bill that would include teacher and principal residency programs in the Federal Work-Study program.

“The overwhelming success rate of these programs has already helped place quality educators in schools and will continue to be a critical component of bettering the educational opportunities for current and future generations,” Tipton said.

The Teacher, Principal, and Leader Residency Access Act would add educator residencies to work-study, which is need-based for students. Crow’s office pointed to Colorado’s Boettcher Teacher Residency program as an example of a viable model: prospective teachers train in the classroom with experienced educators before setting out on their own. The program retains 95% of its participants after five years.

The inclusion of teacher residencies would be a step toward addressing the opportunity gap that the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce found in an analysis of work-study placements that were relevant to a college student’s course of study.

“Low-income students are more likely to work in food service, sales, and administrative support fields than higher-income students,” the center wrote in 2018. “Work experience in these jobs does provide basic employability skills like conscientiousness and teamwork but does not provide the deeper technical and general skills that foreshadow good entry-level career jobs.”