The Maine Teacher Residency Program supports student teaching candidates, emergency, and conditionally certified teachers and connects them with teacher education programs to strengthen their preparation and retention.

There are five key initiatives for the teacher residency model in Maine.

1. Cohort support for mentor teachers through once a month online workshops facilitated by UM faculty resulting in microcredential in 2023-2024.

2. School district support for crafting job positions that recruit new teachers and reinvigorate veteran teachers as mentors.

3. Coordination of University of Maine System teacher education course offerings for accessibility for teaching candidates working full time in schools.

4. Development of a teacher performance assessment system to ensure consistency in the quality of teacher preparation across the dispersed model of teacher residencies.

5. Collaborative, cross-constituency advisory board to build infrastructure that is rigorous while being responsive to local contexts.