Webinar—Closing California’s Opportunity Gap: Ensuring All Students Have Access to Fully Prepared Teachers

A well-prepared and stable teacher workforce is foundational to California’s ability to achieve equitable and excellent student outcomes and close achievement gaps. But ongoing and deepening teacher shortages remain a major challenge, and emerging signals suggest that shortages may worsen because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, California’s prior investments in teacher recruitment and retention are beginning to show promising outcomes and provide a foundation for the state to build upon.

The Learning Policy Institute, California Partnership for the Future of Learning, California Teacher Residency Lab, EdPrepLab, The Education Trust—West, and Prepared to Teach hosted this webinar featuring researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Speakers discussed the impacts of the state’s ongoing teacher shortages, as well as recruitment and retention strategies, including teacher residencies, that show promise in addressing this pressing problem. Presenters also shared findings from the reports, Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality and Sustainable Strategies for Funding Teacher Residencies: Lessons From California. Topics included:

• An update on the shape of California’s teacher shortages, including inequities in student access to a fully-prepared, diverse, and stable teacher workforce.
• An examination of emerging outcomes from state efforts to address teacher shortages.
• A deep dive into California’s teacher residencies, including the role that programs have played in whole-school improvement and boosting student achievement.
• An analysis of the implications of COVID-19 for district staffing shortages.

Speakers

• Austin Beutner, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District
• Desiree Carver-Thomas, Researcher and Policy Analyst, Learning Policy Institute
• Linda Darling-Hammond, President, Learning Policy Institute
• Naomi Ondrasek, Senior Researcher and Policy Advisor, Learning Policy Institute (moderator)
• Jeanna Perry, Manager, Teacher Development, Fresno Unified School District
• Mary Vixie Sandy, Executive Director, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing
• Jeraldy Vega, Instructional Coach, Young Oak Kim Academy, Los Angeles Unified School District

Resources Shared During the Webinar

• "Nearly All States Suffer Declines in Education Jobs" (Pew Charitable Trusts)
• Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality (LPI)
• Sustainable Strategies for Funding Teacher Residencies: Lessons From California (LPI, Prepared to Teach, EdPrepLab)
• Interactive Map: Understanding Teacher Shortages in California (LPI)
• Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
• LAUSD's Residency Programs: CSU Dominguez Hill, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Northridge, UCLA
• California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC)
• California Center on Teaching Careers
• "Strategies to Strengthen EPP and LEA Partnerships During COVID-19" (CTC, California State Board of Education, and California Department of Education)
• Golden State Teacher Grant Program
• Fresno Unified School District
• Fresno Unified Teacher Pipeline Programs
• Step Up, Teach Fresno! infographic
• Young Oak Kim Academy (LAUSD)
• The Power of Urban Teacher Residencies: The Impact of IMPACT (UCLA Center X)
• Documentary about TEP’s Urban Teacher Residency Program
• "Our UCLA IMPACT Experience" (Center for Powerful Public Schools)

Cover photo by Allison Shelley for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action.