Charter School Teacher Residency Programs (KIPP, Relay, Achievement First and More)

A charter school teacher residency is a training route into a charter classroom, built on the teacher-residency model: a full year inside a host school, with coursework toward a state teaching credential running alongside.

The National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR), founded in 2007, defines the model as a full academic year spent co-teaching alongside an effective mentor teacher.

NCTR lists the model's financial supports as stipends, scholarships or tuition assistance, and its aim as producing state-certified teachers.

Federal law echoes the shape: the Higher Education Act (20 USC 1021(22)) defines a teaching residency program as school-based preparation.

In that definition, the prospective teacher teaches for one academic year alongside a mentor teacher who is the teacher of record, with concurrent coursework from a partner institution.

Two elements repeat across both definitions — a full year in a real classroom, spent beside a mentor teacher — and the federal law adds two more: the mentor is the teacher of record, and coursework runs concurrently from a partner institution.

Relay Graduate School of Education describes its version as a residency with an apprentice year that leads to teacher certification, with an optional special education certification.

The route beside it works differently: Teach For America corps members are hired as employees of the school, district or charter organization — not TFA — and TFA says it is not a certification program.

TFA says that in most regions, corps members work toward certification while teaching and pay for the coursework and exams themselves.

A residency, by contrast, is built around the training year, and the KIPP residencies this page covers describe paid training — KIPP SoCal's adds federal TEACH Grant support toward tuition.

Our research found no national body that runs charter residencies: each program we verified is run by its own organization, and within KIPP, region by region, so the region decides the design.

KIPP is the clearest example: its residencies are run by regions and differ in length, partner university and pay, and there is no single national KIPP residency.

The table below gathers the programs our research verified from each organization's own pages, with the details each one publishes.

Achievement First's Teacher-in-Residence program is a one-year pathway to lead teacher for people with little or no teaching experience, and uncertified residents are required to be on the path to earning a state teaching certification.

Uncommon Schools takes an apprentice-shaped entry: it offers Apprentice Teacher and Relay Resident roles for people with limited or no teaching experience, and says it provides two to three weeks of training before each school year plus ongoing coaching.

Relay Graduate School of Education sits beside the networks rather than replacing them: it is a graduate school whose residency runs the apprentice year described above, and Uncommon Schools offers a Relay Resident role alongside its Apprentice Teacher role.

Relay's degree programs are offered in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Washington DC.

The programs above are the ones our research could verify from the organizations' own pages, not a ranking and not a complete list of charter residencies.

Success Academy is a gap in that research: we could not verify its teaching-program structure, length or pay from the pages we checked, so go to the network directly for current program details.

For the job the training points toward, the charter school teacher career guide covers the role, the employers and how charter hiring works.

Where the programs publish residency pay, it comes as a stipend: our research found no sector-wide residency stipend figure — each program posts its own number for its own cohort.

KIPP SoCal advertises a $45,000 stipend, alongside additional financial support through the federal TEACH Grant toward tuition, testing fees and living expenses.

KIPP Public Schools Northern California's posting for its 2027-28 East San Jose residency listed a $55,000 stipend for a 12-month work year.

KIPP Atlanta describes its Teaching Residency as a selective, paid two-year program; the page our research read does not publish a stipend figure.

What we did not verify matters too: the pages we checked cover stipend and tuition support, but not the wider benefits around a residency year.

Health coverage, retirement contributions and leave during the training year are therefore questions to ask each program directly, before you accept an offer.

Keep the stipend separate from a salary as well: the figures above are training-year stipends — KIPP NorCal's own posting labels its $55,000 a stipend — not a teaching salary.

Which credentials a residency produces is the question to nail down before you enroll, so here is what each verified program states.

KIPP SoCal residents earn a California teaching credential and a master's degree during the one-year residency.

KIPP Public Schools Northern California's posting promises a master's and a credential earned in one year from Alder GSE.

KIPP Atlanta runs a two-year design: a resident year first, then lead teaching while finishing a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT).

Relay's residency includes an apprentice year leading to teacher certification, with an optional special education certification, and the school runs master's options for current teachers as well.

Achievement First states its requirement from the resident's side: uncertified Teachers-in-Residence must be on the path to earning a state teaching certification.

The degree and the certificate are different instruments: the master's is the university's, while the license or certificate is issued by a state.

Where a program names the certificate, it is a state's — KIPP SoCal's, for example, is a California credential, and Achievement First's uncertified residents must be on the path to a state teaching certification — so the state you train in matters.

Before you enroll, ask the program exactly which certificate its graduates receive, and confirm with your state education agency what that certificate requires where you want to teach.

The cost side is program-specific too.

Relay charges $850 per credit for students entering in 2026-27, and says most of its 32-credit MAT programs total $27,200.

Its specialized tracks cost more: the 38-credit MAT for culturally and linguistically diverse learners totals $32,300, and the 39-credit MAT in special education totals $33,150.

Relay also publishes an after-aid estimate: an average out-of-pocket cost of $6,100-$12,100 for its MAT, against the $15,300-$20,400 it cites for alternative certification programs.

KIPP's California residencies carry their own tuition figures — $23,290 for KIPP SoCal's 2025-26 cohort and $24,820 at Alder GSE in the Northern California posting — before the stipend and aid each program describes.

Relay's institutional standing is part of checking any graduate program: it is a nonprofit graduate school chartered by the New York State Board of Regents in 2011.

It holds accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, reaffirmed in 2017, and CAEP's full accreditation of its initial and advanced programs, from 2020.

If you are weighing a residency against enrolling in a standalone degree, our page on whether a master's in education is worth it covers how the degree pays off for private and charter school teachers.

A residency can trade training support for teaching service, so read the commitment terms before you accept the stipend.

The clearest published example is KIPP Atlanta: residents commit an additional two years of lead teaching at KIPP Atlanta Schools upon completion of the residency program.

That commitment runs on top of the program's own two-year structure — a resident year, then a lead-teaching year while finishing the MAT.

Achievement First describes its program as a pathway to lead teacher; our research did not find a published multi-year commitment figure for it, so ask.

For KIPP SoCal, KIPP Public Schools Northern California, Uncommon Schools and Relay, the pages we checked describe the training but do not publish post-residency commitment terms.

That silence is not the same as no commitment: a program's enrollment materials can carry their own terms, so get the commitment question answered in writing before you accept.

Where a commitment exists, the years are spent at the program's own schools — KIPP Atlanta's commitment names KIPP Atlanta Schools — so the fit questions of city, grade span and school model deserve the same scrutiny as the funding.

Residencies recruit directly, and the calendar can run ahead of the cohort year.

One dated example: KIPP Public Schools Northern California's posting for its 2027-28 East San Jose residency set an application deadline of November 6, 2026, for a residency labeled 2027-28.

Eligibility is set program by program: KIPP Atlanta requires a bachelor's degree with a 3.0 or higher GPA, while Achievement First and Uncommon Schools both pitch their programs at people with little or no teaching experience.

That makes residencies one of the structured entry routes into charter teaching for people starting out, alongside the network hiring paths covered in the charter school teacher career guide.

Wherever you apply, treat the program's own page as the source of truth for dates, stipends and requirements — the figures in this guide were published by the programs themselves and can change cohort to cohort.

Career information, not legal, tax or immigration advice: program terms, credentials and certification rules change yearly, so confirm current details with the program, the network and your state education agency before you apply or enroll.