CFISD Expands Teacher Residency Program for 2025-26, Bolstering Texas Teacher Pipeline Through State-Backed Innovation
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (CFISD) is significantly growing its Teacher Residency Program for the 2025-26 school year, welcoming 76 new teacher residents to 20 campuses districtwide—an increase from the program’s inaugural year, which hosted seven residents at four campuses.
The Teacher Residency Program partners aspiring teachers from local universities with experienced educators through a yearlong co-teaching model. Unlike traditional student teaching placements, residents work alongside mentor teachers for the full school year while earning a $25,000 salary. The approach provides deeper classroom experience and mentorship while supplying CFISD with a direct pipeline of highly qualified teaching candidates.
“We are thrilled to expand the CFISD residency program,” said Laura Nichols, teacher residency and student teacher coordinator. “This investment in our future teachers shows our dedication to finding top talent for our incredible students. These residents will go on to be highly qualified CFISD teachers and affect the lives of countless CFISD students in their careers. We feel lucky to get to work with them, their host teachers and campuses to help them grow into teachers that can continue to make CFISD a destination district in our area.”
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Rigorous Selection and Focus on High-Need Areas
Residents applied through a competitive process involving video essays, coursework review, recommendations, and consideration of life experience and district connections. The 2025-26 cohort includes many residents with 4.0 GPAs, and more than half are graduates of CFISD schools. Nearly half of the group will serve in critical need areas such as special education and bilingual education—subjects that often face teacher shortages statewide.
“I’m most excited about the classroom exposure this year,” said Luis Rodriguez, a CFISD teacher resident for the 2025-26 school year. “I’ve spent a lot of time in my college classrooms learning about how to run my own classroom, but it’s not really until you get into an actual classroom that you get the most hands-on experience.”
CFISD teacher residents, campus principals and other CFISD administrators pose for a photo during the CFISD Teacher Residency Legislative Action and TEA Support
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Texas Legislature have championed teacher residency programs as a key workforce development strategy. Through recent legislative action, funding has been allocated to support districts in building residency programs that address teacher shortages, increase classroom readiness, and strengthen teacher retention.
According to TEA, “Teacher residency programs are an innovative, sustainable approach to teacher preparation that pairs a yearlong classroom apprenticeship with expert mentoring.” Benefits highlighted by TEA include:
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Improved Teacher Retention: Residency-trained teachers are more likely to remain in the profession long term, reducing costly turnover.
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Better Classroom Readiness: Residents gain extensive, practical experience, preparing them for the challenges of diverse classrooms.
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Critical Need Support: Residency programs help fill hard-to-staff positions in areas like bilingual education and special education, aligning with state and district priorities.
These outcomes are supported nationally as well: studies from the Learning Policy Institute show that residency-trained teachers are almost twice as likely to remain in the profession after five years compared to teachers prepared through traditional pathways and are often more effective in high-need schools.
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Building a Destination District for Educators
By expanding the Teacher Residency Program, CFISD is aligning with state-level priorities and investing in its long-term workforce. It is also strengthening its reputation as a “destination district” where future educators are supported through hands-on training, mentorship, and career pathways designed for success.
As Nichols noted, this effort is not only about filling classrooms today but also about cultivating the next generation of educators who will “affect the lives of countless CFISD students in their careers.”
Stay tuned with My Neighborhood News for continued coverage on CFISD programs and student achievements.
Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.
