City Teaching Alliance Resident Interview Questions
& Process

I applied for the 2026 Cohort and got an offer. The interview was kinda awkward and the interviewers seemed bored, likely because they had other interviews. Even with little experience in education or teaching, the process is manageable if you have transferable skills. They highlighted strengths like time management, proactivity, and willingness to learn. The interview had 11 questions, a mock lesson, a short presentation from them, and time for my questions. I got an email offer about 1.5 weeks later. They say it's selective, not competitive, focusing on qualified candidates rather than a quota. Be ready to talk about your strengths and how they align with CTA's mission. Prepare STAR stories and advocate for yourself.

I skipped the initial interview rounds because I got accepted into another teacher prep program, which was my final choice. The interview process was pretty straightforward; they mainly wanted to understand my motivations for joining the field and how I envisioned contributing.

If your application is accepted you will invited to participate in a digital interview, then an in-person final interview assuming you make it through the digital interview stage. The digital interview is a series of questions you film yourself answering. Depending on the strength of your application you may be invited directly to the final interview without having to do the digital interview. The final interview has 4 phases: 1) Mini-lesson: You have a maximum of 5 minutes to present a mini-lesson to your fellow applicants. You receive very detailed instructions as to what the interviewers are looking to see weeks beforehand, so you have plenty of time to prep and practice. They're primarily interested in seeing that you are prepared. 2) Group discussion: Before the interview day you will be sent an article to read. As a group you will discuss the article and answer a list of questions they give you. You have 20 minutes to do so. The only rules are that each person needs to speak, and all of the questions need to be discussed. This was the most difficult part for me, as it definitely felt like everyone was more interested in making their points than having an actual discussion, myself included. 3) Role-play: This is done in a small room, just you and the interviewer. You are given a scenario (parent-teacher conference) where you play the teacher and the interview plays the parent. This lasts a total of five minutes. The 'parent' is purposefully belligerent and defensive, you just have to remember to keep your cool and try to work with them. 4) Standard interview questions: the number of questions you're asked will depend on the interviewer. They're all very typical questions you'd expect to answer at a normal interview. The interview started around 9am and I was done by 1:30. There were a total of 7 people interviewing. Demographically, 5 were black, 2 white; 6 were female, 1 male. Our interviewers were kind and encouraging and seemed happy to be there. My biggest recommendation: prepare. Read and notate everything they send you. Practice your mini-lesson over and over and make sure you get it under time. Of the 7 people who interviewed only 2 of us completed our lessons in 5 minutes.