In 1999, ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College partnered with the Osborn Elementary School District in central Phoenix, Arizona, to create a program addressing two goals simultaneously: How can ASU better prepare teacher candidates for their first year on the job, and how can a school district nurture and train new teachers who might then choose to remain within that district’s faculty. This initiative would later be named iTeachAZ. (Note: Beginning with the 2019–20 school year, iTeachAZ was superseded by MLFTC Professional Pathways.)
Next Education Workforce at ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College created a pilot program for a new residency model of teacher preparation in the 2018–19 school year. Approximately 50 teacher candidates were placed in the Avondale and Pendergast school districts, working in teams of two or three TCs plus a mentor teacher who was already an employee of the district. Each team was responsible for two classrooms with approximately 60 pre-K–12 students.
"Making” and makerspaces have become popular ways of engaging young people and adults in hands-on, creative activities that can develop their knowledge and skills in engineering, robotics, scientific problem-solving and the arts. Much of the focus in current programs has been on developing participants’ technical skills and basic scientific knowledge, such as the ability to use simple programming languages or to understand electronic circuitry.