Lessons in higher education: What California can learn
Keeping California public university options open
Superintendents: Well-paid and walking away
The debt to degree connection
College in prison: How earning a degree can lead to a new life
Library or police, a small town’s struggle puts a spotlight on library inequities across California
This is the second part of a series on strategies for tackling teacher shortages in California.
School districts and county offices of education are estimating they’ll need to hire just over 22,000 new teachers for the 2016-17 school year. These latest projections, part of a multi-year rebuilding of the state’s teaching force, are a good sign. They mean budgets are growing and programs are expanding after years of devastating cuts. There’s just one problem: our state is not preparing enough new teachers to meet the projected need. Even with re-entrants and an increase in out-of-state recruits, districts are experiencing shortfalls they cannot easily address.
California policymakers are examining a range of state-level responses to the teacher shortage. Members of the Legislature are reviewing several bills, including proposals focused on recruitment, preparation and retention. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, for its part, is considering new guidelines for the use of substitutes, an issue that the Association of California School Administrators believes represents part of the short-term solution to the shortage.
School district and county officials also have a critical role to play. Indeed, the shortage provides local policymakers and practitioners with an opportunity to update their recruitment strategies and re-examine how best to retain teachers as part of a comprehensive effort to address short-term staffing needs, as well as build a stable, supported and effective teaching corps.
In the increasingly competitive labor market, it takes more than just posting an ad on EdJoin, the statewide education job portal, to recruit and hire qualified teachers, particularly in high-need subjects and regions. In Riverside County, district staff are traveling out of state and offering signing bonuses and moving expenses for hard-to-staff positions. In the Central Valley, the Bakersfield City School District recently signed a contract with its local teachers union that removed the cap on salary schedules for teachers hired from outside the district, as a way to attract the “best and the brightest” to work there. And in the Bay Area, where teacher salaries in many communities have not kept pace with skyrocketing housing costs, districts like Cupertino and San Francisco are looking to provide stable, affordable housing solutions as part of their efforts to recruit and retain quality teachers.
These and other efforts represent the kind of innovation and partnerships that will position districts well, particularly in times of teacher shortages. Even more strategic, say researchers and practitioners alike, are initiatives aimed at understanding and addressing teacher turnover, which costs schools nationwide an estimated $7 billion, according to a 2007 study. A comprehensive approach to reducing turnover would reduce the demand for new teachers and save money that could be better spent on mentoring and other approaches to supporting teacher development and advancing student achievement.
The first step in addressing turnover is understanding both its scope and causes. That’s what Superintendent Stephanie Houston and her colleagues in the Colton-Redlands-Yucaipa Regional Occupational Program in eastern San Bernardino County did 10 years ago in response to what Houston describes as a revolving door of career technical education (CTE) teachers. They began conducting exit interviews with departing teachers and a consistent theme emerged: teachers were leaving because they felt unprepared and unsupported as they transitioned from their industry jobs to the classroom.
Armed with this knowledge, the Regional Occupational Program introduced a two-year support program for beginning teachers, under the guidance of a full-time mentor teacher. Over the past 10 years, the program has reduced turnover and improved instruction. It was identified as a statewide model by the California Department of Education and became the basis for CTE Teach, a professional development and training program for new California CTE teachers.
Research shows that high-quality mentoring and induction programs accelerate professional growth among new teachers, lead to teachers who stay in the profession longer, and improve student learning. Unfortunately, many California districts reduced or eliminated their Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) programs during the era of budget cuts. Last year’s allocation of $490 million statewide to support professional learning, including mentoring and induction for beginning teachers, is a first step toward reinvigorating these programs. A guidance paper, published by the Learning Policy Institute and the Stanford Center for Opportunity and Policy in Education (SCOPE), in partnership with CDE, is a resource for districts looking to maximize the impact of these funds.
A high-quality teacher support program is one of many steps districts can take to reduce turnover, and – by extension – the number of vacancies they need to fill each year. Research into why teachers leave their schools and the profession also points to the need to create more productive teaching and learning environments, in part by providing training to principals and other site administrators. Increased leadership opportunities for teachers and the chance to participate in decision making at their school sites are other factors found to improve teacher retention.
Over the long term, local partnerships with higher education are critical to ensuring that teacher preparation programs are producing graduates that meet their unique needs. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, for example, the districts have partnered with nearby schools of education to implement yearlong teacher residency programs, which are effective at recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers. Also promising are programs that seek to recruit young people to teach in their own school districts, such as the Education Academy at Skyline High School in Oakland, part of the district’s Linked Learning program.
With every challenge comes an opportunity. As districts build new pipelines to teaching that attract and support young people and mid-career adults, they’ll also be taking steps to create a more diverse teaching workforce that better reflects the students and communities our schools serve.
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Roberta Furger is senior writer at the Learning Policy Institute, a research and policy organization in Palo Alto. David Robertson is the director of human resources for the Twin Rivers Unified School District and chair of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Human Resources Council.
The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
The system has enrolled more in-state residents, but not enough to meet targets set by the state.
Two prominent organizations say the proposal would dismantle progress made to improve reading instruction for those students.
Fresno City College professor Tom Boroujeni is unable to fulfill his duties as academic senate president while on leave, the latest update reads.
This is a continuing EdSource series on proven innovations in higher education that relate to the problems facing California’s higher education systems.
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Mary Pearl 7 years ago7 years ago
This article tries to address the issue of having enough teachers but doesn't address the enormous disconnect between district management and the goal you target. Many BTSA programs are laborious and extra work load for beginning teachers with very little to offer new teachers. God forbid these teachers have their own children or aging parents. Districts are eliminating the Reduced Workload Program, restricting sick leave, ending shared positions to help support new moms in the … Read More
This article tries to address the issue of having enough teachers but doesn’t address the enormous disconnect between district management and the goal you target. Many BTSA programs are laborious and extra work load for beginning teachers with very little to offer new teachers. God forbid these teachers have their own children or aging parents.
Districts are eliminating the Reduced Workload Program, restricting sick leave, ending shared positions to help support new moms in the profession, ending any handshake or even a pewter finger to encourage retirement saving to hire younger, less expensive teachers. Schools management has become a punitive, wrongheaded corporate mimic that misses your target, and the public’s target, that is, if public schools are even our goal? Best change your Administrative Credentialing Programs quick to include functionality, ethics, shared decisions and compassion.
Barbara 8 years ago8 years ago
To help schools retain teachers who might retire, the school districts should retain teachers using the Reduced Workload Program (Education code 44922 – aka the Willie Brown Act)
I am close to retirement and it my district offered this incentive of part-time work or a job share with another special education teacher I would stay a few more years. This program could retain two teachers instead of losing them to retirement.
brian wimberly 8 years ago8 years ago
Once again your solutions DIDN'T, DON'T and WOULDN'T help me out in my 14 years of ROP/CTE teaching. CTE teachers need SECURITY, not mentors, not BTSA! Being at "the bottom" of job seniority ALWAYS, year in and year out makes for a terrible career, but we do it! We do it for the kids, not based on laws and regulations that often are flawed. In my 14 years, which I didn't have a SINGLE negative evaluation, … Read More
Once again your solutions DIDN’T, DON’T and WOULDN’T help me out in my 14 years of ROP/CTE teaching. CTE teachers need SECURITY, not mentors, not BTSA! Being at “the bottom” of job seniority ALWAYS, year in and year out makes for a terrible career, but we do it! We do it for the kids, not based on laws and regulations that often are flawed.
In my 14 years, which I didn’t have a SINGLE negative evaluation, nor did I miss A SINGLE DAY due to illness – these should be some form of criteria for job performance. I used to tell my students that attendance is really important, but they’ve seen first hand that it hasn’t been the case for me as a CTE teacher.
Once again – JOB Security is needed – NOT more hoops to go through. Ask BTSA grads, less than 5% feel it’s necessary and usefull!!!!!
brian wimberly 8 years ago8 years ago
ONE word for wannabe CTE teachers: DON'T Unless you enjoy *NO job security *A HUGE pay cut *Going through numerous HOOPS! *Going back to college *Packing up your stuff (which mostly includes YOUR purchased supplies, and setting up at another school) *getting lied to about your employment status and being told: -"fill your classes." -"classes that cost the most will be cut." -"due to … Read More
ONE word for wannabe CTE teachers: DON’T
Unless you enjoy
*NO job security
*A HUGE pay cut
*Going through numerous HOOPS!
*Going back to college
*Packing up your stuff (which mostly includes YOUR purchased supplies, and setting up at another school)
*getting lied to about your employment status and being told:
-“fill your classes.”
-“classes that cost the most will be cut.”
-“due to declining enrollment, your classes must be given to a full-time teacher, even though they are not credentialed properly.”
If you want to STAY at a school, take on the YEARBOOK! They will keep you there! Even though you should be an English teacher, they’ll ALLOW you to do it cuz nobody else wants to!
Are Engineers and other highly trained/paid professionals lining up to become California high school CTE teachers? I doubt it; they must be a lot smarter than me.
– Brian W – tired of putting my heart into a school and getting it ripped out due to NO CTE teacher job security
Replies
Katherine Simon 8 years ago8 years ago
Brian, please email me at katherine.simon@gmail.com