FRAMINGHAM  — Framingham State University is launching a teacher residency program in order to increase the number of bilingual and/or minority teachers in the Framingham Public School system.

FSU partnered with FPS as well as the National Center for Teacher Residencies to develop the program, which is set to launch next fall. Comparable to a medical residency, teaching residents will be placed in a school district with a professional mentor where they’ll get hands-on training toward becoming teachers at the early, elementary or secondary level, a press release from FSU said. Successful residents will ultimately be placed in the Framingham Public Schools.

FSU just received a $74,855 grant from AmeriCorps and the Massachusetts Service Alliance to plan the program. The grant is expected to cover 65 percent of the residency program’s planning process. The remaining 35 percent is going to be paid by both FSU and FPS through $39,870 of in-kind funds. According to a press release from FSU, the university and its partners are hoping to get an additional three-year grant from AmeriCorps totaling $1 million, which will go toward the implementation of the teaching residency and stipends for their residents during their teaching practicums.

“The planning grant is a major vote of confidence from AmeriCorps that enables us to partner with the National Center for Teacher Residencies,” said Kelly Matthews, a professor of English at FSU who co-authored the grant application. “AmeriCorps will assist us in writing the larger three-year grant proposal.”

According to recent data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), 89 percent of public teachers in the state are white, while minority students make up about 42 percent of the public-school student body. The state’s stats are similar to those in Framingham, where 80 percent of the teachers are white and more than half of the students in the public school system are minorities.

“The goal for us in this effort is to cultivate more bilingual and diverse teachers who can be placed within the school district,” said Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Joseph Corazzini, a co-author of the initial AmeriCorps grant.

The residency program will be open to undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students, including students at FSU.  In addition, paraprofessionals in the public school system interested in obtaining full teaching positions are invited to apply as well.