Linda Darling-Hammond and Patrick Shields
Feb 23, 2016

The post-obit is the first in a series of commentaries on the emerging teacher shortage in California. This ane focuses on what the country of California can practice to address the shortage.

Linda Darling-Hammond

Linda Darling-Hammond

As California has embarked on an ambitious journey to raise standards for pupil learning and rethink near every aspect of its educational organization, one of the state's most pressing challenges is hiring and retaining well-prepared, high-quality teachers who can teach the challenging new skills our society demands. This is particularly truthful when the state faces teacher shortages similar those emerging at present.

Brand no mistake, the instructor shortage is real. The Learning Policy Institute's recent report "Addressing California's Emerging Teacher Shortage: An Analysis of Sources and Solutions" establish that, later sharp declines in teacher education enrollments over the last decade, recent hiring increases left many districts scrambling to find teachers. As districts began to restore teaching positions eliminated during the Great Recession, credentials issued to new teachers were at an historic depression.

Patrick Shields

Patrick Shields

And nearby states, too experiencing shortages, were luring abroad many of these teachers with promises of good salaries and lower housing costs.

As a result, the number of teachers hired in 2022 without having completed – or sometimes even begun – their training soared, reaching one-3rd of all new credentials issued in the country. Although shortages are occurring across a range of subject area areas, the trouble is nearly astute in mathematics, science and special education. In special education, barely half (52 percent) of new teachers are fully prepared. Bilingual teachers and those with training to teach English linguistic communication acquisition are also in curt supply. A small-scale increase in individuals entering preparation this year was nowhere shut to the level of need, and, further, was not in the fields that have the greatest demand.

As was truthful in previous eras of shortage, the dearth of qualified teachers is felt most acutely in schools serving more depression-income and minority students. According to California'due south educator equity programme, in 2013-14, twice as many students in high-minority every bit in depression-minority schools were beingness taught by a teacher who had not completed – or even enrolled in – a training plan.

Need is projected to grow further equally districts continue to recover from the recession and seek to replace the programs and positions they eliminated, as they also cope with compunction, which averages nearly 8 percent of all teachers annually. This includes inevitable retirements – fully 1-third of California teachers are over l and 10 per centum are over 60 years old – but nigh attrition is due to younger teachers leaving. The reasons range from economical concerns to dissatisfaction with teaching weather condition, such as large classes, lack of materials, accountability pressures, lack of authoritative supports and lack of public appreciation.

To meet the projected demand, the number of new teachers entering the classroom would need to near double – something that is unlikely to happen without changes that seriously ameliorate the attractiveness of the profession.

What can the state do?

No single policy tin can solve California'south instructor shortage. What is needed is a comprehensive set of strategies at the state and local level. Country government can play a particularly strategic role by strengthening recruitment efforts and making it more economically feasible for immature people and career changers to go teachers. Districts, for their part, can concentrate on improving local education weather and increasing memory.

A set of strategic initiatives the state enacted in the late 1990s dramatically reduced shortages at that time. Nevertheless, those programs have all gone by the wayside, eliminated during budget cutbacks. It'southward time again to act, making investments that increase the attractions to teaching, rather than lowering the standards.

Where to first? About importantly, nosotros should work to keep the teachers we accept now. It is conventional wisdom in the business concern world that retaining employees is much more cost-effective than the kind of revolving door currently seen in the instruction profession. Studies show that loftier turnover reduces student achievement; furthermore, it tin cost more than $15,000 to replace each teacher who leaves – money that could be more productively spent on the mentoring that would allow them to stay. Bear witness shows that fully prepared teachers leave at half the rate of those who take to learn on the job, and novices who receive mentoring from experienced peers are too much more likely to stay.

At the state level, California policymakers can:

  • Restore the CalTeach recruitment centers, which can attract new entrants and teachers from other states and provide information about where to notice training and jobs.
  • Rekindle enquiry-proven strategies, similar service scholarships and forgivable loans to underwrite teachers' preparation for the fields and communities where they are well-nigh needed.
  • Launch innovative residency programs in high-need communities. These programs underwrite preparation for various, committed recruits who railroad train in fields where there are shortages nether the fly of the well-nigh good teachers while they complete the coursework for a credential. Graduates continue to receive mentoring equally they pay back this investment with years of pedagogy service.
  • Open up avenues to instruction through career pathways that launch high school students toward the profession, create options for paraprofessionals to become credentialed, and develop new plan models for undergraduates who are interested in didactics.
  • Ensure that all beginning teachers have access to a loftier-quality, affordable induction program through stronger accreditation and strategic programmatic back up.
  • Provide incentives that support teachers' power to stay in or reenter the profession through strategies like mortgage guarantees for housing, ease of credential renewal, streamlined reciprocity with other states, and opportunities to continue didactics and mentoring afterwards retirement.

California has solved this problem before and tin do so again past restoring programs that worked, investing in teacher recruitment and training, and signaling the value with which the country views its teachers. These investments can offer long-term payoffs by increasing memory, saving the dollars wasted on high turnover, and improving outcomes for all of California's students.

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Linda Darling-Hammond is president of the Learning Policy Institute, a inquiry and policy organization in Palo Alto. Patrick Shields is executive director of the organization.

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