Tue Nam Ton/EdSource
At an Oakland Unified job fair, recruiter Cary Kaufman (left) speaks with job seeker and substitute teacher Ed Cannon.

Despite an improving economy and new efforts to recruit teachers, California’s teacher shortage is showing no signs of easing up.

In fact, shortages are becoming more severe in many communities.

That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Learning Policy Institute, based on a survey of 25 school districts of different sizes and in diverse locations in the state.

The districts are not intended to be representative of California’s nearly 1,000 school districts, but they provide a window into how some two dozen districts are dealing with a widespread problem.

Four-fifths of the districts report that the shortages continue compared to last year, and more than half said that there has been no change since then. One-third say the situation has gotten worse. Only 10 percent said that the situation has improved.

The shortages have become especially acute since the 2014-15 school year in areas such as math, science and special education. Other subject areas where districts struggle to find fully credentialed teachers are in bilingual and career technical education.

Over the past two years California has spent nearly $70 million on a range of initiatives to tackle the shortage, including a program that underwrites the cost of a teacher preparation program for classroom aides and other paraprofessionals already working in a district. That program encourages employees to earn a teaching credential. 

According to Leib Sutcher, Desiree Carver-Thomas and Linda Darling-Hammond, who wrote the report, “it will take three to five years before these efforts have a real impact.” Darling-Hammond, the president of the Learning Policy Institute, is also chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. 

Some of the state’s strategies include expanding so called blended teacher preparation programs, which allow undergraduates to get their teaching credential in four years, rather than the more typical pathway that takes five or even six years. In announcing the state’s biggest initiative so far to address the shortage, Gov. Jerry Brown asked the Legislature in January to approve spending $100 million in next year’s budget to recruit and prepare additional special ed teachers.

The need is clear. Three-quarters of the 25 districts surveyed said they were unable to fill all their vacant positions with fully credentialed teachers by the time school started this year. Two-thirds of the districts said they had to hire teachers on temporary permits and those who had received waivers from regular credentialing requirements.

The situation is not uniformly bleak. Two districts that reported the situation has improved are among the state’s largest — Fresno Unified and San Bernardino Unified. On the other hand, Los Angeles Unified, by far the state’s largest district, reported that its ability to fill positions has not changed since last year, and that 40 percent of its new hires were not fully certified.

Among those reporting that the situation has gotten worse is Oakland Unified and San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest district. San Diego reported that about one-third of its new hires were not fully certified this year.

Districts in large urban, suburban and rural communities all report shortages. But rural districts are especially hard hit. The report notes that in some small rural districts all the new teachers hired this year were on emergency-style permits, like Soulsbyville Elementary School District, a district with 500 students in a remote Gold Country town.

Also disproportionately affected by the shortage are schools serving students from low-income families and students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, according to the report. That’s because teachers on “emergency style” credentials are three times as likely to teach in California’s high-minority schools and twice as likely to teach in high-poverty schools.

That, in turn, “exacerbates persistent achievement gaps between these students and their more affluent peers,” according to the report. Thus the shortages represent more than just a personnel challenge. They also have profound implications for not only individual children but for the state as a whole.

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  1. Richard Rider 3 years ago3 years ago

    I’d like to hear about the private school teacher shortage. After all, they pay much less than the public schools – and lack the opulent public employee benefits.

    What? There’s no private school teacher shortage? And the education results are superior to the public schools? And many private schools are in the urban battle zones where public schools are failing most spectacularly?

    How can this be?

  2. Will 4 years ago4 years ago

    Good teachers are not going to participate with a dysfunctional State bureaucracy that creates self-serving unnecessary degrees and training’s to keep themselves employed. There are much better career option dealing with competent people in healthier systems.

  3. Penelope Parra 4 years ago4 years ago

    Why are you not paying attention to the comments below? This is the problem: out of state teachers are treated like trash. We work very hard to get our bachelor’s and to pass certification exams. We are very qualified. I was belittled in front of our individuals in an HR office in California. I left in tears because the accused me of creating my teacher credential.

  4. annoymous 4 years ago4 years ago

    I went for an interview in SFUSD HR is always complaining about teacher shortages. Here the working conditions are bad and on top of that there is the housing crisis. I am a great candidate. I have 4 yrs experience (pushes me up the pay scale) I'm fully certified. Have passed all my tests but most of all own in San Francisco. I sit down at the job interview and the principal says … Read More

    I went for an interview in SFUSD HR is always complaining about teacher shortages. Here the working conditions are bad and on top of that there is the housing crisis. I am a great candidate. I have 4 yrs experience (pushes me up the pay scale) I’m fully certified. Have passed all my tests but most of all own in San Francisco. I sit down at the job interview and the principal says “we are holding this position for someone who hasn’t passed the CBEST,” the test you have to take to enter the credential program.

    It was then I realized once again education is a big scam. They are purposely putting less educated and prepared people in the classroom to save money? Not sure. My friend in the district says they still haven’t filled the position, and subs are running the class. At the same time at interviews, they are sending certified candidates away. I never got a call back on the applications I sent to Oakland.

    All I know is an investigative reporter should look into it.

  5. Bonnie Manzon 4 years ago4 years ago

    I recently applied as a substitute teacher in Northern California. I am not a retired teacher or a current admin who "fills -in" for overtime as a sub. As a professional person with experience in many fields, Im dismayed that I must pay for my own livescam background report as a condition of employment. One would expect that a school district would have funding to pay the DOJ /FBI their fee in … Read More

    I recently applied as a substitute teacher in Northern California. I am not a retired teacher or a current admin who “fills -in” for overtime as a sub. As a professional person with experience in many fields, Im dismayed that I must pay for my own livescam background report as a condition of employment. One would expect that a school district would have funding to pay the DOJ /FBI their fee in order to screen applicants. That-s the other thing, no one can explain what a school district is actually looking for in these background checks, parents and students are not screened for their criminal or otherwise history! Everyone just pays. Asking unemployed persons to pay for their background check is discriminatory towards low-income people and perpetuates a caste system in the school districts.
    School districts pay for new buildings, six figures to administrators, yet ,they cannot find funds to waive or reimburse a background check for substitute teachers, who get no benefits, no regular work site, and must introduce themselves to a classroom of children who equates the presence of a substitute teacher with a day at the zoo. Go figure!!

  6. Cynthia Parker 5 years ago5 years ago

    All the money spent still doesn’t change the fact that teachers are in “battle zones” working in public schools. If there was discipline in the schools, maybe more people would enter the career.

    Replies

    • Miliana 4 years ago4 years ago

      So agreed. Parents are just entitling there kids and spoiling them so much. They expect much out of teachers but don’t even care. It’s just ridiculous how kids are just able to walk all over teachers now.

    • Diana 3 years ago3 years ago

      Yes! I’ve been in it 13 years. Last two years at an urban low socio-economic school. I’ve seen the change happen and am done. This will be my last year. I makes me so sad that so many kids don’t care about learning and are so disrespectful.

  7. Shani 5 years ago5 years ago

    I am a UCLA graduate, fully credentialed with a Clear professional credential and cannot get a job due to California principals abusing/misusing their power and letting me go without fault – simply meaning they have let me go due to not playing their corrupt games such as not wanting to inflate grades to make them look better or not working an extra hour outside of my contract for $13 – money stolen from the after-school … Read More

    I am a UCLA graduate, fully credentialed with a Clear professional credential and cannot get a job due to California principals abusing/misusing their power and letting me go without fault – simply meaning they have let me go due to not playing their corrupt games such as not wanting to inflate grades to make them look better or not working an extra hour outside of my contract for $13 – money stolen from the after-school program.

    These principals have the power to abuse teachers and to let them go without reason. Most often the school boards back them up and do not investigate. There are many credentialed teachers in California but once let go by one principal, it is quite hard to get employed by another because the letter of non-re-elect is a secret code between them that the teacher has done something wrong.

    Notice that out of all the reasons given for California’s teacher shortage, this reason is very rarely discussed or given little thought in a plethora of explanations.

    Replies

    • Mily 4 years ago4 years ago

      Wow Shani,

      Your response is very eye opening. I’m a T.A. working so hard to get my multiple subject. I never want to work in a public school. I’m sorry about your experience. It’s so sad and corrupt.

  8. Lisa Smiley 5 years ago5 years ago

    The shortage mainly comes from California and their ridiculous requirements for teachers to be considered as “prepared”! They require too many tests! CBEST, CSET, RICA, and on top of that, BTSA! And they can’t figure out why there’s a shortage? How about blending all those into the course?

    Replies

    • Lichi 2 years ago2 years ago

      I am struggling so bad with these test. It is really unfair. I already passed 6 test but there is still more. Many teacher candidates left the program because of the amount of testing and how expensive it gets to pay for all these test.

  9. H. A 5 years ago5 years ago

    A little over a month ago I moved from the state of Hawai’i where I was a teacher for the past eight years. My husband and I decided to move to the San Diego area to begin a new life after experiencing the “missile crisis” from North Korea, the Kilauea volcano eruption that has made air quality poor and where it’s becoming increasingly expensive to live ($8 for a gallon of milk has become too … Read More

    A little over a month ago I moved from the state of Hawai’i where I was a teacher for the past eight years. My husband and I decided to move to the San Diego area to begin a new life after experiencing the “missile crisis” from North Korea, the Kilauea volcano eruption that has made air quality poor and where it’s becoming increasingly expensive to live ($8 for a gallon of milk has become too common). Like many teachers I wanted to continue to contribute to the community, city and state of my destination as I did when I lived and taught in my state. Little did I know how confusing, competitive and complicated it would be to be an educator in the state of California.

    The first obstacle is that California does not recognize out-of-state teaching “licenses”. Instead I had to get a “Preliminary Single-Subject” teaching credential with a NCLB (No Child Left Behind) compliance and ELA (English Learner Authorization), which is a specifically designed course specialized to support English language learners. The course work of both is valuable in gaining understanding for the diverse population of California, but the cost of $,2400 is a hardship for me. An out-of-state teacher has the option to “test out of ELA” with three tests that take six hours and a payment of about $300. I graduated with honors from a university, and I tried taking one of the tests and failed by 15 points with little explanation on what I needed to do to improve. My observation is that the material for studying doesn’t match the questions on the test and therefore I am forced to taking the $2,400 course if I want to teach in California.

    As I work on “clearing” my California Teaching Credential through the California course work that will cost me $2,400 and take 3 to 6 months to finish, I have applied for everything from a teacher to a resource teacher for disabled students. To this date, I have applied for 27 jobs in the North County area of San Diego, and have only gone on two interviews. Each job I have been invited to interview for has a large percentage of new teachers who have little or no teaching experience and who also fall lower on the pay scale. In other words, it is cheaper to pay a first-year teacher than a veteran teacher. Unlike new educators, many veteran teachers have education coupled with years of experience, professional development coursework, seasoned lessons, classroom management skills, and the ability to know when to adapt their instruction to the needs of their students. These crucial values are only gained through experience.

    A week ago, I drove my 8-year old niece to her first day of third grade at her San Marcos school and many of the school’s teachers were waiting on the curbside welcoming their students. I recognized two of them as the first-year teachers I had seen at the two interviews I had also attended. As I dropped my niece off and watched her walked towards her first-year-California University-NCLB-and ELA-Compliant-Cleared-Multiple-Subject-Teaching-Credential teacher, I couldn’t help to feel that my humble out-of-state license and years of experience in teaching, loving and dedicating my life to my students’ success carried no weight in this state.

    The question is: Are California children receiving the education they deserve or are they guinea pigs to the strict bureaucratic procedures that mire the California educational system? The proof shows itself in the district and towns, and the student success rate within each.

    Replies

    • Kristin 5 years ago5 years ago

      I agree 100% with everything you have said. I hold teaching certificates in Texas and Alabama and even started the process in Hawaii before we got orders to leave. There is no other place as ridiculous with their requirements as California. Beyond my Bachelor's, I went back to get my Master's in education in instructional technology and design to make myself more marketable but none of it matters because I am still trying to navigate … Read More

      I agree 100% with everything you have said. I hold teaching certificates in Texas and Alabama and even started the process in Hawaii before we got orders to leave. There is no other place as ridiculous with their requirements as California. Beyond my Bachelor’s, I went back to get my Master’s in education in instructional technology and design to make myself more marketable but none of it matters because I am still trying to navigate hurdles to teach in California for minimal pay. I’m not surprised at all they have a teaching shortage.

    • Joseph Albisu 5 years ago5 years ago

      I agree with you SOOOO MUCH. I moved to the San Diego from Nevada after teaching there for 9 years and have experienced almost the same things you have. Wishing you the best!

  10. LUZ LUJAN 5 years ago5 years ago

    CBEST also represents a great problem. Many certified teachers from other states want to teach in California cannot get a job they need to pass CBEST test. Why they should pass a test they already did in their states? California should granted other states’ certificates – as an example, Arizona’s teaching certification. Many educators from Arizona are looking for a teaching position in California.

  11. Cherie 5 years ago5 years ago

    Then why am I unemployed as a fully credentialed teacher? I think their only looking to hire young first time teachers

    Replies

    • Pamela Dee Jackson 5 years ago5 years ago

      Dear Cherie, I was hired just a few days before school started last year. I worked really hard for the whole year. I was given a temporary contract and was told not to worry about it. I had a full teaching credential and I was given a lay off notice 2 months before the school year ended. They gave me a poor excuse as to why and told me just to re-apply. … Read More

      Dear Cherie,
      I was hired just a few days before school started last year. I worked really hard for the whole year. I was given a temporary contract and was told not to worry about it. I had a full teaching credential and I was given a lay off notice 2 months before the school year ended. They gave me a poor excuse as to why and told me just to re-apply. The bottom line was if they kept me on for the 2nd year then they would have to give me tenure. Let’s face it: The ones that got kept were the interns because they can pay them less money. I was so disappointed.

  12. Carrie 5 years ago5 years ago

    I changed careers at 40 and earned my teaching credential in 2010. One of the reasons I chose teaching (besides loving working with kids) is because of articles like this that say there is a teaching shortage. I thought once I earned my credential, there would be plenty of jobs out there and that I could start a new career and work my way up and earn a decent living for me and my … Read More

    I changed careers at 40 and earned my teaching credential in 2010. One of the reasons I chose teaching (besides loving working with kids) is because of articles like this that say there is a teaching shortage. I thought once I earned my credential, there would be plenty of jobs out there and that I could start a new career and work my way up and earn a decent living for me and my family. After years of long term subbing (5+ years) I have been unable to get a full time teaching contract. During this time, only one of the years qualified me to clear my credential. I was unable to get another full year teaching contract and so I could not finish clearing my credential.
    I am now working at a private school (working on an expired credential) and making even less than what a public school teacher makes and without the family health insurance. I love teaching and love my job but I don’t even make enough to cover basic utilities and groceries for me and my family. I guess it’s time to become a nurse!

  13. Anita 5 years ago5 years ago

    Teacher shortage? Yes, the shortages are in districts that don’t pay very well. Fully credentialed teachers, with experience, are making the higher salaries and working in those districts that pay the higher salaries. Los Angeles county school districts offer lower pay, yet it is the most expensive place to live in Southern California.

  14. Jaxs 5 years ago5 years ago

    As a teacher, I'm going to say three things that need to change to stop the shortage and have more qualified teachers. 1. The amount of money I have to spend to become a teacher and work in my classroom. To become a teacher it had cost me $20,000+ from a university to become credentialed. I had to work full-time for 6 months as a student teacher without pay, no help from … Read More

    As a teacher, I’m going to say three things that need to change to stop the shortage and have more qualified teachers.
    1. The amount of money I have to spend to become a teacher and work in my classroom. To become a teacher it had cost me $20,000+ from a university to become credentialed. I had to work full-time for 6 months as a student teacher without pay, no help from school or government. This past year was my first year and all the requirements of keeping my credential and required classroom supplies cost me $8,500 out of my pocket, which is very low pay. The teacher budgets are a joke. I am a chemistry teacher with work experience as a chemist in the field, I got paid the same as the new English teacher and this was her first job ever. My work experience and skills do not increase my pay.
    2. The requirements the state and district ask for are pointless, have zero benefit and waste hours each week for teachers. The NGSS standards are improvements, but the chemistry part is horrible and not going to help students learn. The state and district requirements make teaching a difficult and ineffective fit students.
    3. Parents’ and students’ behavior. The amount of disrespect from students on a daily basis is unbelievable. The parents of my most troubling students are the worst. They refuse to talk to their child and blame me for everything. I call one parent to say her son refused to work and left my class without permission after arguing with me why he was not allowed to do whatever he wants. The mother called me a racist and said I treated her son unfairly. All I said was she should explain the importance of learning coping strategiges to complete his work.
    All these things need t be address to help the teacher crisis.

  15. J 5 years ago5 years ago

    This article is complete hogwash. I’ve been actively applying to districts with a fully cleared, permanent credential. The last 3 positions I’ve applied for told me they had over 100 applicants per open position. Districts are laying off excess teachers. Stop telling people there is a shortage. It’s a lie.

  16. Adrian Sherwin 5 years ago5 years ago

    The shortage persists because it's too hard to become a teacher. I recently quite teaching because I couldn't pass the RICA exam to be a SPED teacher. I had completed my credential program, taught as an intern for two years but because I can't receive my credential until I pass that pointless exam I am done as an educator. I always thought my employer would be the one who determined whether or … Read More

    The shortage persists because it’s too hard to become a teacher. I recently quite teaching because I couldn’t pass the RICA exam to be a SPED teacher. I had completed my credential program, taught as an intern for two years but because I can’t receive my credential until I pass that pointless exam I am done as an educator. I always thought my employer would be the one who determined whether or not I could teach, not Pearson!

    Replies

    • Miliana 4 years ago4 years ago

      Hi Adrian, I enjoyed reading your response. I'm a current teaching assistant at a local school working on my multiple subject teaching credential. I took a break from studying the CSET and when I returned to studying it again it got even harder! A bunch of new information, facts, and expectations to know even more! It's ridiculous and if I didn't have any prior knowledge I probably wouldn't be trying again. All … Read More

      Hi Adrian,
      I enjoyed reading your response. I’m a current teaching assistant at a local school working on my multiple subject teaching credential. I took a break from studying the CSET and when I returned to studying it again it got even harder! A bunch of new information, facts, and expectations to know even more! It’s ridiculous and if I didn’t have any prior knowledge I probably wouldn’t be trying again. All to keep with state standards. You are so qualified too! No wonder California is loosing teachers. They want the highest quality teachers and expect so much yet THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT THEM.

  17. Jamie 5 years ago5 years ago

    I earned my Multiple Subject Credential in 2010. It was a bad time to graduate but I was hopeful. It’s 2018. From what I can see there still appears to have a large number of highly qualified applicants out there still trying to become teachers. That’s why I’m questioning whether there is a shortage in California as people say or only in tough/rural areas and special subjects which have always been scarce on applicants.

  18. Susan Langer 5 years ago5 years ago

    As a principal of special ed, in Sonoma, I am losing teachers due to housing shortages, low pay, and an excessive amount of lawsuits. We also can’t hire SLPs and School Psychs

  19. Joyce 5 years ago5 years ago

    Most of the shortages are due to the cost of living versus a living wage. Teachers have to pay for three-quarters of their credentialing. If a teacher puts most of their pay into more self-education and supplies for their classroom (like I did), there isn’t any pay left to live on. That’s why I moved to Georgia.

  20. Ernesto Barrera 5 years ago5 years ago

    The problem is a serious lack of proper pay for these professionals.
    A teacher can have a Master’s degree and more than 10-15 years experience and still be paid under $60k in many districts.
    Name any profession where someone with those credentials makes less than $100K?
    We can not expect our best and brightest to take on one the toughest jobs out there and not make a decent living in their careers.

  21. FloydThursby 5 years ago5 years ago

    You need to have a pay structure that pays for productivity. Let a starting teacher make 100k if they're staying long hours, tutoring the kids, and have test scores higher than all their colleagues, but let a 60-year old make 60k if they are doing a lousy job, have the lowest test scores, or let them be fired. The whole pay structure needs to be more dynamic, similar to the private sector/CEO situation … Read More

    You need to have a pay structure that pays for productivity. Let a starting teacher make 100k if they’re staying long hours, tutoring the kids, and have test scores higher than all their colleagues, but let a 60-year old make 60k if they are doing a lousy job, have the lowest test scores, or let them be fired.
    The whole pay structure needs to be more dynamic, similar to the private sector/CEO situation you mention. Part of the problem with supplies is that the across the board increases are pushed to beyond affordability and there is therefore no flexibility in budgets. They say it’s 99% salary, 1% supplies, set in stone. Let 1% not go to teacher salaries across the board when we get it once every 5 years so it’s 2% for supplies, then another 1% so we can afford tutors. We should try to hold back on increases across the board and increase merit bonuses so the ambitious can make a lot, supply budgets and 1-on-1 tutoring budgets. Yes, some teachers earning 50k who should earn way more, but what we don’t talk about is there are plenty of teachers on 90k who are worth 50-60k and are taking the max 9 sick days a year every year even if not sick and are going through the motions. Let’s be dynamic.

  22. Kim 5 years ago5 years ago

    If that $70 million had been spent to pay teachers a salary they could live on, you wouldn’t have a shortage.

  23. Alden 5 years ago5 years ago

    It confounds me that teachers, and the profession of teaching is so necessary to an ordered and civilized society, yet so disregarded. There isn't a CEO in the world who is tacitly expected to routinely reach into their own pocket to purchase dry erase markers, paper, books, glue sticks, etc. for their company/employees. Further, the lack of viable, on-campus support with low-performing students, and more recently, aberrant/violent student behavior is profoundly troubling. I would take a … Read More

    It confounds me that teachers, and the profession of teaching is so necessary to an ordered and civilized society, yet so disregarded.
    There isn’t a CEO in the world who is tacitly expected to routinely reach into their own pocket to purchase dry erase markers, paper, books, glue sticks, etc. for their company/employees.
    Further, the lack of viable, on-campus support with low-performing students, and more recently, aberrant/violent student behavior is profoundly troubling.
    I would take a bullet for my students, but why should I have to? And why aren’t the names of the teachers that have died for their students well and widely known? Sigh.

  24. Ellen 5 years ago5 years ago

    These edu "deformers" can't connect dots. Remember the demonization of teachers just a few short years ago including the Vergara case, value added and more? You can go to school for half the time and be a registered nurse and pull in over 100,000 a year so why would anyone become a teacher? I love teaching but have found myself now priced out of Los Angeles. It appears as though I will be making … Read More

    These edu “deformers” can’t connect dots. Remember the demonization of teachers just a few short years ago including the Vergara case, value added and more? You can go to school for half the time and be a registered nurse and pull in over 100,000 a year so why would anyone become a teacher? I love teaching but have found myself now priced out of Los Angeles. It appears as though I will be making a 50 mile commute in just a few short months. The thought it depressing. But at the same time our unions and pensions are under attack.

    Replies

  25. Ed Stein 5 years ago5 years ago

    But what happened to all millions and millions in funds from property taxes? You know what happened, bureaucracy and over regulation ate it up before teachers got to see a penny.

  26. el 5 years ago5 years ago

    1. Problems seem to be most acute in places where schools are not able to pay teachers enough to meet their living expenses. In urban areas, houses are frequently more than 10x a teacher annual salary; in rural areas, the same because there is a lack of affordable, attractive housing because most parcels are ranches. 2. Our boom and bust cycle with teachers makes this happen every time. We train teachers, put them in a classroom, … Read More

    1. Problems seem to be most acute in places where schools are not able to pay teachers enough to meet their living expenses. In urban areas, houses are frequently more than 10x a teacher annual salary; in rural areas, the same because there is a lack of affordable, attractive housing because most parcels are ranches.

    2. Our boom and bust cycle with teachers makes this happen every time. We train teachers, put them in a classroom, lay them off due to budget issues, they find other work, and golly gee what a surprise that they are no longer available to teach and the kids graduating a couple years behind them don’t want to have the same thing happen to them. Whatever can we do about this? If only these best and brightest young people would sacrifice themselves on our altar and work for peanuts only when we felt like paying them every other year. These kids today.

    3. The emergency credentials are used as a proxy for the crisis, but it’s not an especially good one. Maybe it gives you a sense of the number of people available for work, but I’ve been on interview committees who actively chose a candidate that would need a temporary or emergency credential over someone who didn’t. It’s not necessarily the case as implied that those candidates are scraped from the bottom of the bin – sometimes it is just that they are being snapped up early because they were actively recruited.

    If we aren’t going to pay teachers well, we can at least offer the security of knowing that their jobs won’t go away capriciously. If we can’t do either, and we require specialized training in advance, we shouldn’t be surprised that we are having trouble filling these jobs.

  27. Michael 5 years ago5 years ago

    Given the salaries as well as the scaling back of health benefits and the recent move to address pensions (i.e. cut them way back to the point where we will likely not get much more of a benefit than Social Security even though we contribute 10.25 percent of our check as opposed to 6.2 for those doing Social Security) why is anyone surprised? Add that to the stress of test scores, school violence (evidently … Read More

    Given the salaries as well as the scaling back of health benefits and the recent move to address pensions (i.e. cut them way back to the point where we will likely not get much more of a benefit than Social Security even though we contribute 10.25 percent of our check as opposed to 6.2 for those doing Social Security) why is anyone surprised? Add that to the stress of test scores, school violence (evidently part of our job now is to take bullets for our students), and the general attitude towards the profession it likely (and sadly) won’t change.

  28. ann 5 years ago5 years ago

    "The districts are not intended to be representative of California’s nearly 1,000 school districts, but they provide a window into how some two dozen districts are dealing with a widespread problem." What does this mean? Dimes to dollars the shortages occur most in districts with high housing costs or very rural locations. Too bad this study doesn't address the quality of training in teacher preparation programs in California known to be inadequate at … Read More

    “The districts are not intended to be representative of California’s nearly 1,000 school districts, but they provide a window into how some two dozen districts are dealing with a widespread problem.” What does this mean? Dimes to dollars the shortages occur most in districts with high housing costs or very rural locations. Too bad this study doesn’t address the quality of training in teacher preparation programs in California known to be inadequate at best. Most of the best charters prefer to hire those not having been in one of these programs. http://hechingered.org/content/research-suggests-poor-quality-of-teacher-training-programs-in-u-s-compared-to-other-countries_6420/
    http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/teacher-prep-inadequate-says-study.shtml
    https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/americas-teacher-training-programs-arent-good-enough/276993/
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/education/21teaching.html