Teacher candidates in the Claremont Graduate University teacher residency program spend an entire year working with a mentor teacher in Corona Norco Unified classrooms.
Courtesy: Claremont Graduate University School of Education Studies
Public schools in California are facing historic staffing challenges: rising rates of dissatisfaction and burnout within the current workforce and unprecedented shortages of future teachers, as increased housing and education costs deter potential teachers from entering the field.
But university teacher preparation programs and school districts can create more effective partnerships to meet these demands.
Historically, the partnerships between teacher preparation programs and school districts have been transactional: teacher preparation programs place student teachers in districts for short periods of time without considering district needs. To change this dynamic, teacher preparation schools launched residency programs to ensure new teachers better understood the communities they were serving. Residencies are similar to student teaching models, but differ in that they are for a full year. Within a residency, aspiring teachers take on increasingly more responsibility in the classroom alongside a mentor teacher for the entire year, gain familiarity with the ebbs and flows of the school year, and assume full teaching responsibilities by the end of the year.
Over the last five years, California has dedicated more than $350 million for teacher residencies to better prepare future educators and help diversify the workforce. Research shows candidates who go through a residency become more effective teachers more quickly than those launching their careers through other pathways, and they are likely to remain in the profession longer. It costs a district roughly $20,000 to hire a new teacher; by reducing turnover, residencies are not only good for new teachers and K-12 students, but also for school district budgets.
One promising avenue to meet these challenges is by creating mutually beneficial partnerships between university teacher preparation programs and school districts to help place and nurture new teachers in the field. These partnerships require transparency, a clear vision, and shared investments. With these elements in place, they have the opportunity to meet districts’ staffing needs and teacher preparation programs’ enrollment goals while surrounding new teachers with systems of social and professional support. These partnerships also provide stipends and embedded professional development that enrich existing teachers’ work with new avenues for leadership as mentors to new teachers.
One example of a creative and effective partnership can be found between Claremont Graduate University and Corona-Norco Unified School District. The university and the district had worked together for many years, with Corona-Norco hiring many Claremont alums, but they had never formalized a partnership. With a foundation of mutual trust and understanding, the district shared data about their current and anticipated staffing needs, and the faculty of the Claremont teacher education program shared insight into their students’ experiences, strengths and needs entering the profession. Understanding the benefits that a residency program provides to veteran teachers, students and the district as a whole, the district committed to paying residents a living stipend from reallocated budget dollars.
A shared vision is key to a successful partnership. For example, both the university and the district have a strong commitment to diversity. This is visible in the diverse participants recruited by Claremont’s teacher education program, who are drawn to its deeply rooted commitment to social justice and humanizing relationships. It also reflects Corona-Norco Unified’s mission to foster the wellness of their students by cultivating an educator pool that better reflects the diversity of its students and communities. This mutual commitment to what teaching can and should be created pathways for recruiting experienced mentor teachers from the district interested in professional development with the university that leveraged and built from their knowledge and expertise. Research shows that grouping mentors in community with other experienced teachers and giving them opportunities to engage not only as practitioners but also as intellectuals helps fend off burnout and gives them a renewed sense of purpose.
The teacher residencies that have come out of this partnership buffer participants from the overwhelm and burnout so many other new teachers face by embedding them within a community of support that includes university advisers and faculty alongside mentor teachers and advisers at the district. The residents not only learn from their university classes and experiences in their mentor teachers’ classrooms, but also from opportunities to work with colleagues to support students who are struggling academically, working with small groups of students, analyzing students’ work with department teams, and interacting with parents and caregivers at drop-off and during teacher conferences. The breadth and depth of these experiences give residents confidence that when they step into their own classroom, they’ll be ready to meet the needs of students and have colleagues to call upon when they need support.
District leaders are ready to hire their residents after they earn their master’s degree and credential and eager to have more residents at their school sites. School principals note that residents provide data-driven, hyper-personalized instruction to students that they otherwise would not be able to offer. Students love residents, often running up to them during lunch and recess for hugs. And parents and caregivers appreciate having more people around who care about their kids. Having more adults on campus who know and are known by more students benefits everyone.
With more partnerships like this, the possibilities to innovate and strengthen learning for everyone at our schools grow exponentially. This story is just the beginning.
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Rebecca Hatkoff, PhD, is the interim director of teacher education at Claremont Graduate University.
Debra Russell works as part of the California Educator Preparation Innovation Collaborative team at Chapman University to promote strategic teacher residency models across the state.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
A group of WCCUSD school psychologists at a union contract rally in 2023.
Courtesy of John Zabala
West Contra Costa Unified School District’s school psychologist internship program once flourished. The district recruited from substantial applicant pools from local universities and provided a strong start for beginning school psychologists entering the workforce, often retaining them after the internships ended.
Now, however, in the years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, WCCUSD is struggling to recruit interns and fill vacant school psychologist positions. This means psychologists, considered essential pieces of school environments, are carrying larger case loads and working longer hours, leading to burnout.
School psychologists fill a critical role in school communities, collaborating with administration, teachers and parents to ensure students are succeeding academically, emotionally and behaviorally.
West Contra Costa has struggled with five to seven school psychologist vacancies for the past couple of years. Halfway through the current school year, the district is still dealing with three.
“We’re going to weather, this obviously, but we still have a couple of years in which we are going to have a really significant shortage, and we’re going to have a really significant increase in the demand for services, so we’re kind of in for a little bit of a scary period,” said John Zabala, a school psychologist in the district and the president of United Teachers of Richmond.
California is generally facing a critical shortage of school psychologists. According to the California Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of 1 school psychologist for 500 to 750 students. However, California schools on average have 1 per 1,000 students. Some schools have 1 per 3,000 students.
Although WCCUSD’s ratio falls into the recommended range at around 1 school psychologist per 500-550 students, school psychologists in the district still face large caseloads and longer work days, contributing to burnout.
Some districts compensate for shortages by hiring contractors or traveling school psychologists. Emily Springhart, department co-chair of psychology at West Contra Costa, however, said the district has preferred increasing the caseload of school psychologists and extending their work days to deal with the shortage.
“A lot of the report writing and the case management — those things just go home with people,” Springhart said. “I’m sure it’s not great for their own personal health.”
Schools have seen a substantial increase in the number of students requiring mental health and behavioral resources in recent years. In April 2022, 69% of public schools reported that the percentage of students seeking mental health services had increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Covid-19 disrupted early intervention for many students, leading to an increase in the number of students needing support, while the staff who would be able to support them, like school psychologists, have not.
Mary Campbell, a WCCUSD school psychologist and former department chair, said she worries about what the shortages and the resulting burnout could mean for the longevity of the profession.
Springhart said the school psychologist shortage seems to be caused by the same factors triggering shortages of other school staff: inevitable events like retirement, but also financial hardship, forcing people to move out of parts of California with high costs of living.
But another cause lies in the declining number of incoming applicants from universities that typically feed into districts like WCCUSD. Springhart said the number has steadily declined, despite the district having a long and strong history of hiring school psychologists from those programs.
“It seems like all of the districts are kind of fighting over everybody right now, just because there’s not enough people coming out of programs,” Springhart said.
Oanh Tran, school psychology program coordinator for California State University, East Bay, said she’s actually seen an increase of applicants to the program in recent years. But because the Bay Area is home to so many school districts, there aren’t enough school psychologists to go around.
“We have so many districts, so many schools, and just a handful of students are graduating with their PPS (Pupil Personnel Services) credential to service those schools and districts,” Tran said.
Tran said new school psychologists are also experiencing burnout earlier in their careers. Not only are they dealing with more assessment caseloads, but they’re also spending their days putting out fires likely caused by a lack of early intervention.
The best districts, Tran said, prioritize monitoring the needs of their school psychologists, ensuring they have access to helpful mentors, have a manageable caseload, and feel supported by their team. Students are being strategic about finding districts that provide these resources, Tran explained.
“In West Contra Costa, I do remember there was a time where they did have a lot of our practicum and interns,” Tran said. “But now, I think because there are so many districts that are recruiting our students, it’s competitive. It’s so competitive. We only have so many students in our cohort, but we have over 50 districts now participating in our recruitment fair for our students.”
Although West Contra Costa offers competitive pay, especially after salary increases last year, Springhart agreed the shortage has been a regional issue, extending beyond the district. She said more education and recruitment about the profession may be necessary to increase the number of applicants to school psychologist programs.
“I think there are ways that we know that we can attract and keep people in these jobs, which can be very rewarding jobs,” Campbell said, “but not when we’re so under-resourced.”
On Feb. 8, the article was updated to clarify and elaborate on details of AB 2222.
A veteran legislator who taught elementary school for 16 years introduced comprehensive early-literacy legislation Wednesday that would impose requirements on reading instruction and add urgency to the state’s patchwork of reading reforms.
Evidence-based practices, collectively known as “the science of reading,” would become the mandated approach to reading instruction for TK-5, if Assembly Bill 2222, authored by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, becomes law.
The bill would shift the state’s decade-old policy of encouraging districts to incorporate fundamental reading skills in the early grades, including phonics, to demanding that they do so. This would depart from the state policy of giving school districts discretion to choose curriculums and teaching methods that meet state academic standards.
By 2028, all TK to fifth-grade teachers, literacy coaches and specialists would be required to take a 30-hour-minium course in reading instruction from an approved list.
School districts and charter schools purchasing textbooks would select from approved materials endorsed by the State Board of Education in a new round of textbook adoption.
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing would receive money to add several experts for accreditation of teacher preparation programs in the science of reading. The bill would strengthen accountability for those programs that have not taught effective reading strategies, as required under recent state law.
Rubio and the advocacy nonprofits EdVoice, Decoding Dyslexia CA, and Families in Schools, the bill’s co-sponsors, argue that another generation of California children cannot wait for districts teaching ineffective techniques using inadequate materials to come around.
“California is facing a literacy crisis,” the first sentence of the bill states. “There are far too many children who are not reading on grade level by the end of third grade and who will not complete elementary school with the literacy skills and language development they need to be successful academically in middle school and high school.”
Only 43% of California third graders met the academic standards in the state’s standardized test in 2023. Only 27.2% of Black students, 32% of Hispanic students, and 35% of low-income children were proficient, compared with 57.5% of white, 69% of Asian and 66% of non-low-income students.
“There’s always this delicate balance between local control versus let’s move forward collectively,” said Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice and former candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. “But when we have an issue that the vast majority of lower-income kids, who are disproportionately Black and Latino, are not reading at grade level, it requires urgency to do what we know works as fast as possible.”
Rubio, who recalled being handed coloring books instead of reading lessons in first grade as a non-English-speaking Mexican immigrant, said that data on the effectiveness of the science of reading convinced her to author the bill. However, her own experience as a fourth-grade teacher who previously taught kindergarten and first grade reinforced it.
“When I have fourth graders that are at first- or second-grade reading, something’s wrong. I can tell you right then and there, if a kid doesn’t know phonics in the fourth grade, we screwed them up somewhere. If they’re not reading in the third grade, they may never recover,” said Rubio, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2016.
A piecemeal approach to literacy changes
The science of reading refers to research from neurology, psychology, and the cognitive and developmental sciences about how children learn to read. In the last decade, 47 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted laws to incorporate elements of the science of reading strategies. Fewer — Mississippi, Connecticut, Tennessee, and Virginia among them — have adopted and funded policies that coordinate multiple key elements: preparing and training teachers, supplying them with aligned instructional materials, testing for learning difficulties like dyslexia and engaging parents.
California is among the 47 states. Within the past three years, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature enacted discrete pieces of a state policy.
They funded $40 million to the University of California San Francisco to create a screening test for the risk of dyslexia and other learning difficulties; universal screening of K-2 students will begin in 2025-26.
They included $500 million in the last two state budgets for hiring and training of literacy coaches in the 5% of schools with the most low-income students. The Sacramento and Napa county offices of education, strong advocates of the science of reading, are overseeing the effort. They passed legislation to create a teaching credential for PK-3 that includes new literacy standards grounded in the science of reading; teacher preparation programs must introduce them starting next fall, and teachers will take a performance assessment as part of their new credential.
The Commission on Teacher Credentialing created a pre-kindergarten to grade 3 credential and passed new literacy standards grounded in the science of reading; those new standards will apply to the PK-3 credential as well as existing multiple subject, single subject, and education specialist teacher preparation programs. Teachers will take a performance assessment as part of their new credential.
At the encouragement of State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor emerita at the Stanford University School of Education, Newsom included $1 million in the current budget for a “literacy road map,” which will serve as a guide, with online resources, for districts to implement evidence-based reading strategies. Leading that effort are two respected literacy experts, Bonnie Garcia and Nancy Brynelson, whom State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond named the state’s first state literacy co-directors.
Tuck credits the steps taken by the Legislature and Newsom, “who has been an anchor on early education.” But guidelines won’t ensure that students in all districts will receive effective reading instruction —especially high-poverty schools that may be “slower to make adjustments when they’re dealing with so many challenges and so much complexity.”
Megan Potente, co-state director of Decoding Dyslexia CA, points to her 20 years as a teacher, who, as a new teacher frustrated by the ineffectiveness of her reading training, took a course on phonics and fundamental reading skills. “You feel like you’re not good at your job, and you weren’t equipped. And that’s a terrible feeling for new teachers,” she said. “So I went back to school, and I learned what I needed.”
Years later, she became a coach, supporting teachers in districts using balanced literacy that de-emphasizes evidence-based practices. She found it difficult to apply what she knew, she said, “because the curriculum materials didn’t follow the science; the teaching methods didn’t follow the science.”
A piecemeal approach to reading reforms inevitably leads to a game of “whack-a-mole,” former Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, who is credited with implementing successful comprehensive policies in her state during the pandemic, told EdSource.
Newsom did not require nor explicitly encourage districts to use the $20-plus billion they received in federal and state Covid-relief funding on teaching training in the science of reading nor on updating reading texts and materials. Now that the state is heading into a lean budget year, a scarcity of funding, particularly for teacher training, could set back a timeline to implement the bill. Newsom’s proposed budget for 2024-25 includes no significant money for new TK-12 programs.
A spokesperson for the Newsom administration, which usually declines to discuss pending legislation, offered no further comment.
What’s in Assembly Bill 2222
AB 2222 would define evidence-based literacy instruction as “evidence-based explicit and systematic instruction in phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary and oral language development, fluency, comprehension, and writing … that adheres to the science of reading.” (Phonics are rules that relate letters in words to the sounds of spoken language. A phoneme is the smallest element of a sound within spoken language. Phonemic awareness reflects the ability to understand that words combine multiple phonemes when pronounced.)
The bill sets requirements for three principal elements of literacy instruction:
Teacher training
Starting in March 2026 and no later than June 30, 2028, all teachers in grades TK to 5 must complete an approved professional development and training program satisfactorily. The California Department of Education would appoint one or more county offices of education with expertise in the science of reading and evidence-based literacy instruction to serve as the state literacy expert lead that would select the list of eligible training programs. Districts would have to notify parents if fewer than 90% of the required teachers failed to complete the course.
Instructional materials
The last state textbook adoption for English language arts and English language development was 2015. The bill would require the State Board of Education to complete the next adoption cycle by Jan. 1, 2026, for TK through eighth grade. The materials would have to adhere to the science of reading. School districts would not be required to replace materials they’re currently using, but they would need a waiver to buy basic instructional materials that aren’t approved. A district whose waiver is denied for existing instructional materials that they are using will be required to adopt materials from the state-approved list. For the first time, all districts would have to report which textbooks they are using to the Department of Education.
Textbooks like “Units of Study,” by noted literacy author Lucy Calkins, whose instruction relies on visual cues, including the three-cuing method of reading, would not be eligible for the approved list.
Teacher preparation
The bill would strengthen the accountability requirements of landmark Senate Bill 488, the 2022 law that requires candidates for a PK-3, elementary, or multiple subject credential to receive evidence-based reading instruction.
It would require the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to establish a probationary accreditation process for teacher prep programs that aren’t meeting the literacy instruction requirements. Faculty in those programs would have to complete professional development in the science of reading for the program to avoid a loss of accreditation.
The bill would provide funding for the credentialing commission to hire experts in the science of reading to help with program accreditation. One of the dozen members of the Committee of Accreditation would have to be an expert in the science of reading.
Teacher Laura Brown, second from right, speaks at a rally for Miguel Angel Lopez, alongside teacher Betsy Wilson, Lopez’s wife Rosa Lopez, and son-in-law Jimmy Silva.
Courtesy of Becca Esquivel Makris
Top Takeaways
Some schools across California report that parents — and sometimes students — have been detained by immigration officials.
Teachers and other school staff are stepping up to help families get the resources they need.
When a parent is detained or deported, students may become eligible for homeless services.
The day before final exams started at Granada High School in Livermore, special education teacher Laura Brown got word that a student’s father had been detained by immigration officers.
Brown didn’t hesitate. She immediately called the student’s mother, Rosa Lopez, and went over to her house that night. She had known the family for 12 years, ever since the oldest son had been her student. The youngest, who just finished his sophomore year in high school, stops by her classroom regularly just to say hi.
Together, Brown and Lopez wrote a message calling for help. Within hours, they had contacted their local congressional representative, mayor and local activists. Another teacher, Betsy Wilson, helped organize a rally to protest Miguel Angel Lopez’s detention. Days later, he was deported to Tijuana. As his wife travels to Mexico to help him, Brown and Wilson are still trying to support the family.
“That’s the call of a teacher,” Brown said. “Your students need you and that’s it.”
She would do the same for any student, she said.
“Right now, if a student has anyone in their family that has an unknown legal status, it would be really hard for us to expect that their brains are going to be capable of learning and taking in content when they’re in such a traumatized and fearful state,” Brown said.
SUPPORTING IMMIGRANT FAMILIES
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids ramp up across California, so have reports of students grappling with trauma, upheaval and fear after family members — and sometimes students themselves — are detained.
A fourth grader in Torrance and his father were sent to a detention center in Texas after an appointment with federal immigration officials on May 29. They were later deported to Honduras.
In San Francisco, at least 15 people, including four children, were detained by ICE at scheduled immigration check-ins on June 4, according to advocates. In May, a first grader in the district was deported with his mom to Nicaragua after attending an immigration appointment as part of their application for a visa.
“There was no chance for them to return home to get any of their belongings or to say goodbye,” said Maggie Furey, a social worker in the district. “The first grader left school Friday not knowing that they were never going to see their friends, teacher or community again.”
Furey said the child’s deportation hit his classmates and teachers hard.
“A lot of the adults were extremely distraught, and we saw heightened anxiety in our community because we have other families that have immigration appointments coming up and were really fearful,” Furey said. “The kids really missed the student, and you’re having to have really big conversations on a first-grade level with kids.”
She said the child’s teacher set up an international video call so his classmates could say goodbye.
We’ve had to call upon our therapists, our social workers at our school site to be able to have those heart-to-heart conversations with their students when they’re feeling anxious, stressed or very worried
The effects on students extend beyond the communities where the most publicized raids have occurred. Efrain Tovar, who teaches English language development to English learners and immigrant students at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma, in the Central Valley, said he’s seen an increase in fear and uncertainty.
“We’ve had to call upon our therapists, our social workers at our school site to be able to have those heart-to-heart conversations with their students when they’re feeling anxious, stressed or very worried,” said Tovar. “It’s a reality that our students are facing, and students cannot learn when these types of events flare up in the classroom.”
He said, in addition, many immigrant students are unsure of where they will be next school year, which makes it hard for them to plan for high school or the future.
“There’s this feeling among the newcomers that ‘we don’t know if we’ll be back next year.’ As we end the school year, there’s a lot of what-ifs,” Tovar said.
Jesús Vedoya Rentería, who teaches English at Hanford West High School in the Central Valley, said in response to the fear among their peers, some of his students have decided to pass out “know-your-rights” cards outside Mexican markets or at the swap meet on weekends. He said it makes them feel more empowered.
“They were concerned a lot of raids were going on and said we owed it to our immigrant population to make sure they’re informed,” Vedoya Rentería said.
School staff are anxious to know what they can do to help students and families, said Ana Mendoza, director of education equity and senior staff attorney at ACLU of Southern California. She said the organization has worked with several school districts to provide presentations on students’ and families’ rights regarding immigration enforcement and training for school employees.
“Schools have the obligation to ensure families know that students have the right to attend California public schools,” Mendoza said.
Federal law gives all children the right to a free public education, regardless of immigration status. Under California law, school districts must notify parents and guardians of that right. The state attorney general recommends that schools also work with parents to create a plan for who should have custody of the child if parents are detained, and that school staff connect families with legal help or other resources.
A family separated
When Granada High School teachers stepped up to help Rosa Lopez, the mother in Livermore, it meant a lot, she said.
“If it wasn’t for them, I would [have] probably be[en] home with my arms crossed just waiting for Miguel or the lawyer to call,” said Lopez. “That really motivated me and hyped me up, because I was like, ‘OK, I got this and I know I can do this, and we’re going to bring Miguel home.’”
Lopez said her husband’s detention and deportation have deeply affected her kids, who are 24, 23 and 17 years old.
“We’ve never been apart from each other,” she said. “He is the one always making sure we’re OK.”
Miguel Angel Lopez (center) with his daughter Stephanie, wife Rosa and sons Julian and Angel. Credit: Courtesy of the family Courtesy of Rosa Lopez
Her youngest son, Julian, had to take final exams the day after his dad’s detention, but it helped that his teachers knew what he was going through, she said.
“My oldest son, he doesn’t know how to express his emotion, but I can see the sadness in his face, and he said he feels like the house isn’t home because his dad’s not here,” she said.
The couple’s granddaughter, who is 3 years old, doesn’t understand why her grandfather isn’t home. “She grabs his picture and says, ‘I want to go with Papa,’” her name for her grandpa, Lopez said.
Lopez, who is a U.S. citizen, said she applied for her husband to become a permanent legal resident after getting married in 2001, but the government initially denied the application, and the couple has been battling that decision in court for years. She said her husband was originally taken to a detention center in McFarland, but early Saturday morning, he called her from Tijuana and told her he was left there by immigration authorities without his Mexican passport or his California driver’s license.
“I lost it when he told me,” Lopez said. “This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.”
She immediately booked a flight to Mexico to bring her husband clothes and his birth certificate and help him complete paperwork to get a new Mexican passport. She plans to continue to fight the deportation in court.
Students may be eligible for McKinney-Vento resources
Mendoza, from the ACLU, said after a family member is detained, school staff should check if a student’s housing situation has changed, which could then make them eligible for services for homeless students, under the federal law known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
If a student’s parent or guardian is detained, they may have to live with a new family member, for example, or the loss of income of one parent may require a student’s family to move to a new home. In that case, students have the right to stay in the same school even if they have moved farther away, and they may need help with transportation to get to school, Mendoza said.
“Stability is really important,” said Mendoza. “But if they [school staff] don’t inquire about why an address has changed, they might miss that it’s a housing instability that would then trigger McKinney-Vento.”
School personnel at a school district in Ontario, outside of Los Angeles, said they were recently approached by a grandmother who was caring for her grandchildren and needed food and clothing for them. Only after inquiring about their living situation did the district learn that the children’s parents had been detained by ICE. Their particular situation qualified them for homeless assistance resources.
“I think there’s this hesitancy to talk about ‘what does this mean for our immigrant students?’ But I think it’s even more important now because we never know who students will feel comfortable sharing that information with,” said Karen Rice, a senior program manager at student-advocacy organization SchoolHouse Connection.
So many of our members want to know, what do I do in the event that ICE does get past the office and into the classrooms?
Yajaira Cuapio
At Coachella Valley Unified School District, an uptick in fear of immigration enforcement is contributing to homelessness among families. Karina Vega, a district support counselor, said immigration-related changes in students’ lives vary widely. Some parents have had to temporarily leave the country as part of the residency process; others have a deported parent, leaving the remaining parent struggling to make ends meet on their own; others are constantly moving to stay off the radar of immigration officials.
The information from the state attorney general about how to help immigrant students and families is not always getting to teachers, said Yajaira Cuapio, a social worker with the San Francisco Unified School District. She said the teachers union, United Educators of San Francisco, is asking the district to include training on sanctuary policies in the teachers’ contract.
“So many of our members want to know, what do I do in the event that ICE does get past the office and into the classrooms?” Cuapio said. “What are our rights? What do I do as an educator?”
Teacher apprentice Ja’net Williams helps with a math lesson in a first grade class at Delta Elementary Charter School in Clarksburg, near Sacramento.
Credit: Diana Lambert / EdSource
Apprenticeships are being added to the long list ofinitiatives California has undertaken in recent years to address its enduring teacher shortage. State leaders hope that the free or reduced-priced tuition and steady salary that generally accompany apprenticeships will encourage more people to become teachers.
Apprentices complete their bachelor’s degree and a teacher preparation program while working as a member of the support staff at a school. They gain clinical experience at work while taking courses to earn their teaching credentials.
“It opens up the pipeline to teaching for folks who are hired into the school district,” said Joe Ross, president of Reach University, a nonprofit that operates a teacher apprenticeship program. “We have people at Reach who are in positions such as janitors, working in the lunchroom, working in the office. The majority are teacher’s aides, but you have this entirely larger, until now, really overlooked pool.”
California has joined 30 other states that have committed to launching registered teacher apprenticeship programs at the encouragement of the federal government. Last July, the Labor Department developed new national guidelines and standards for registered apprenticeship programs for K-12 teachers and provided funding to develop and expand programs. Twenty states have already started registered teacher apprenticeship programs.
Registered apprenticeship programs must be approved by either the Labor Department or a state apprenticeship agency. They offer a high-quality, rigorous pathway into a profession through an “earn-and-learn” model, according to the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The salaries of apprentices in these programs increase as they complete coursework and take on more responsibility.
Apprenticeships attract and retain candidates of color
Research shows that “grow your own” programs, such as apprenticeships, help to diversify the educator workforce because school staff recruited from the community more closely match the demographics of the student body than traditionally trained and recruited teachers. Apprenticeship programs also increase recruitment and have a 90% retention rate, according to the Labor Department.
“We know, for our candidates of color, that affordability is one of the key considerations,” said Shireen Pavri assistant vice chancellor of the Educator and Leadership Program at California State University.
Clinically rich preparation programs with mentorship, like apprenticeships and residencies, attract and retain more candidates of color, Pavri said. The candidates in these programs usually remain in the preparation program and with the school district they trained in, and stay in the field longer, she said.
Residencies, unlike apprenticeships, focus on teacher candidates who have already earned a bachelor’s degree and are new to the classroom.
“Apprenticeships are relatively new nationwide but really rapidly growing as a way to address teacher shortages,” Pavri said. “The Department of Labor has supported apprenticeships for quite a while, but not in teaching.”
Longtime school employee works toward dream job
On a recent Thursday, apprentice Ja’net Williams, 48, worked with small groups of first grade students as they rotated through a series of stations during a math lesson at Delta Elementary Charter School. She has worked as a paraeducator at the rural school in the tiny Delta town of Clarksburg, near Sacramento, for 14 years.
Williams has always wanted to be a credentialed elementary school teacher, but she couldn’t afford to enter a conventional preparation program. This year she joined the teaching apprenticeship program at Reach University.
Although it is not yet a registered apprenticeship program, which would allow it to access federal funding and resources, Reach University is currently one of the few programs in the state with an apprenticeship program preparing K-12 teachers.
As an apprentice, Williams continues to draw her salary as a paraeducator, and also earns, annually, a $2,300 stipend and is reimbursed up to $1,000 of her expenses from the school district. Reach University charges $75 a month for tuition.
“I was looking at different options,” she said. “It came down to, it’s affordable. I’m a mom. I have a daughter in Sac State and one that will be starting at Sac City (College) next year. So I want to help them financially as much as possible, and take off the burden for them. So I couldn’t take on, you know, $40,000 of debt for myself when I would want to put that toward my children.”
Williams works in the classroom during the day and takes classes on Zoom two evenings a week to complete her bachelor’s degree and teacher preparation courses. She and her classmates discuss their day’s experiences and incorporate them into their coursework, Williams said.
After completing her teaching credential, Williams plans to continue to work at Delta Elementary Charter as a teacher. “I want to stay here,” she said. “This is where my heart and soul is.”
Experts plan state teacher apprenticeship program
There are 17 registered teaching apprenticeship programs in California, but they are mostly limited to early childhood education. There are no registered apprenticeships for K-12 credentialed teachers, said Erin Hickey, a spokesperson for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
They may be more common soon. Pavri is part of a group of educators, researchers, state and county officials, and labor and policy representatives who have been working with the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards for nearly a year to develop a Roadmap for Teacher Apprenticeships for California. Their work is being funded with philanthropic support.
The road map will help school districts, teacher preparation programs and other partners navigate the process and find funding to launch, scale and sustain registered teacher apprenticeship programs, Hickey said. The road map is expected to be released later this year.
The road map will take into consideration multiple on-ramps and pathways for different teacher candidates, including high school students, post-secondary students, current classified staff and other career changers, Hickey said.
Preparing the road map hasn’t been easy, Pavri said. The work group has had to clarify and streamline regulations from both the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The agencies are working together to develop a joint approval process that will be informed by the work group and by pilot programs expected to begin next school year.
San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento and the Bay Area have been identified as potential pilot locations, according to Hickey.
The work group is also trying to identify a sponsor for the state program from a university, county office of education or state agency, or a consortium of partners, Pavri arvi said.
“Without adequate funding, it’s going to be really hard to ask for existing staff to take on these responsibilities,” Pavri said. “So, we’ve been trying to figure out what the roles and responsibilities for each of these entities are, and what kinds of funding would be available to administer the program.”
Funding for teacher recruitment drying up
California has spent more than $1.2 billion since 2016 to address teacher shortages, including $170 million for the California Classified School Employee Credentialing program, which also helps school staff to earn a degree and teaching credential. But budget shortfalls have state leaders looking for other sources of funding to grow the teacher workforce and to help teacher candidates to get paid while they learn, Pavri said.
Registered apprenticeship programs receive federal funding through the Department of Labor.
“Here in California, there have been recent incredible state investments for us to grow and diversify our teacher workforce,” Pavri said. “But all of these funds are one-time legislative appropriations. And then we’re also concerned about the health of the state budget and whether these appropriations would be renewed.”
This is a very important chart to raise awarement across schools, districts, and the state; however, I think it needs to be corrected that these are students who don’t pass these college-prep courses with a C or higher. It sends the wrong message to say that these “students don’t take courses needed to apply to CSU or UC” as I know that most students in many schools/districts do take these courses — they just … Read More
This is a very important chart to raise awarement across schools, districts, and the state; however, I think it needs to be corrected that these are students who don’t pass these college-prep courses with a C or higher. It sends the wrong message to say that these “students don’t take courses needed to apply to CSU or UC” as I know that most students in many schools/districts do take these courses — they just don’t get a passing grade, which is another systemic issue that needs to be tackled.
Christian Robinson always planned to go to college, but when she graduated from Adelanto High School in California’s High Desert, she felt aimless. Without a plan or preparation for higher education, she decided to go to work instead.
She regrets that now.
“I wish I would have gone straight into college because I would have had everything done, finished and over with,” said Robinson, who at 20 is now enrolling at Victor Valley College.
Currently, Robinson juggles two jobs, working for a security company and serving fast food. She wishes she had received more guidance about attending college from her school.
Robinson’s story was typical for Black students at Adelanto High School, where over 8 out of 10 Black students graduated in 2020 without the college prep courses — known as A-G — required for admission to California’s public universities.
The path has been different for her younger brother MarQuan Thornton, currently a high school senior at Adelanto. Months away from graduation, Thornton is one of a small group of students deciding not whether he will go to college, but which one.
MarQuan Thornton is a senior at Adelanto High in California’s High Desert. He credits the Heritage Program at his school, aimed at Black students, for helping to keep him on track for attending college.Emma Gallegos/EdSource
Thornton has worked hard but recognizes that the key difference between his trajectory and his sister’s is the support he’s getting from school that did not exist during his sister’s time there.
Three years after his sister graduated, his high school began the Heritage Program, which is aimed at ensuring that Black students, like him, are on track to complete their A-G requirements.
Thornton knows he’s on track to meet the requirements that will make him eligible to attend a state university.
“If she (Christian Robinson) had this type of chance when she was in high school, she probably would have been where I am at,” Thornton said. “I can see the difference.”
While the vast majority of students in California — 86% of seniors in 2023 — graduate from high school, most — 56% in 2023 — do not complete their A-G requirements, according to an EdSource analysis of data from the California Department of Education. EdSource’s analysis found that Black and Latino students are the hardest hit.
In 2023, 68% of Black students and 64% of Latino students did not meet A-G requirements, compared with 26% of Asian students and 48% of white students, according to EdSource’s analysis.
The highest non-completion group is foster students at 88%, followed by disabled students at 85% and English learners at 82%.
“These kinds of numbers should be treated as a five-alarm fire,” said Melissa Valenzuela-Stookey, director of P-16 research for Ed Trust-West, a nonprofit that advocates for justice in education.
Valenzuela-Stookey said high school graduates are being shut out of affordable four-year public college options, because they are not getting the support they need to complete the A-G coursework.
“Our education systems urgently need to invest more in our students of color,” Valenzuela-Stookey said.
As Robinson neared graduation in the early days of the pandemic, she said everyone, even teachers, seemed to lose track of how to prepare students for college and life after high school.
But long before the pandemic, the district was struggling to prepare Black students to meet their A-G requirements and be ready for higher education, according to Ratmony Yee, assistant superintendent of educational services for Victor Valley Union High.
Robinson’s mother, Crystal Francisco, says that she is proud of how hard her daughter works to earn her own money. But she concurs that if Heritage had been around, Robinson might have gone straight to college.
“She probably would have gone a different way,” said Francisco.
Snapshot of California
Of 1,766 high schools in California, about half graduated more than 56% of students lacking the required college preparatory courses.
Fewer than 2 out of 10 students met A-G rates in 2023 in many northern counties, such as Lake, Del Norte, Plumas, Lassen, Nevada, Tehama, Trinity. Just 3 out of 10 students in Kern, Merced, Tulare and Kings counties met the requirements. That compares to the Bay Area in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Marin counties where more than 5 out of 10 students met A-G requirements.
Improving low A-G completion rates has been a longtime goal of both educators and state policymakers, but it’s a problem that resists easy answers or quick fixes, said Sherrie Reed, executive director of the California Education Lab at UC Davis and a researcher with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), an independent research nonprofit affiliated with several California universities.
The idea of simply aligning the state’s minimum high school requirements with A-G requirements hasn’t gained steam because of the concern that it would result in fewer students graduating, said Mayra Lara, the director of Southern California partnerships and engagement with Ed Trust-West.
What are A-G requirements?
The details of A-G requirements can be arcane, especially for students and parents who are not familiar with the college admissions process. The state requires students to complete a minimum of 13 courses to receive a high school diploma.
But to attend a UC or CSU requires that a student takes 15 courses in seven areas: history, English, math, science, foreign language, arts and an elective. Each category has its own letter, A-G, which is where the requirements get their name.
These courses overlap with high school requirements, but they are also more rigorous. For instance, three years of English are required to graduate from high school, while A-G eligibility requires four years. Only one of those years can include English as a Second Language or English Language Development — courses that English learners are often enrolled in.
Low grades are a common way students fall off the A-G track. A “D” is considered a passing grade for a high school diploma, but A-G classes require at least a “C” to count as eligible.
The state, instead, has offered carrots for districts working on improving poor A-G rates, especially those that have a large marginalized student population, such as those who are low-income, English learners, homeless or have a disability. In 2021-22, the state set aside over $547 million for the A-G Completion Improvement Grant Program. The state has also pushed dual enrollment and career technical education to the high school curriculum, both of which can help students meet their A-G requirements.
Progress has been slow. The number of students who have met A-G requirements statewide has ticked up just shy of four points over the last six years.
Understanding why any given student may or may not meet A-G requirements requires examining what is happening in a particular region or district, as well as disparities within schools.
“The answer is that it is all of that,” said Reed. “No one factor accounts for it.”
Some students said that graduating without meeting A-G requirements sent them the message that they were not college material.
Brock Wooster-Mills, 20, said he felt “doomed to fail” as a student with a disability attending Liberty High School in Bakersfield, where 49% of students do not meet A-G requirements.
Partial hearing loss had affected Wooster-Mills’ ability to speak and follow lessons in elementary school. But even when his hearing improved, his counselors in the Kern High School District wouldn’t allow him to transfer into required A-G courses such as French and geometry.
He remembers one special education teacher telling his class that they likely wouldn’t even attend a community college, but Wooster-Mills said he always knew he was capable of more. He enrolled in Bakersfield College in 2021, the fall after he graduated.
He’s now in his sixth semester, but his lack of academic confidence and inadequate preparation continue to dog him. In high school, he had never been taught how to write an essay. He had never studied a foreign language, which made Spanish daunting. He failed the first time he took it.
“I feel like I’m still behind,” he said. “I wasn’t taught what I was supposed to be taught.”
Most high schools in the state — 91.4% of traditional district schools, according to PACE — do offer a full slate of A-G coursework that put them on track for college. But the degree of access students get to those courses or support, once they have enrolled, varies greatly, resulting in wide disparities between groups of students.
Interactive Map
View the map to see the percentage of students in each high school who graduate without A-G required courses.
PACE released a series of briefs and reports on the A-G completion rates in summer 2023, noting that access to rigorous coursework — whether dual enrollment, Advanced Placement or other college preparatory courses — can profoundly change the trajectory of a student’s life. These courses not only set students up for admission to college, but make it more likely that a student will pursue college in the first place.
Researchers found that some high schools do not offer the full range of A-G courses. In 2018-19, 2.5% of schools offered no A-G courses, and another 6% only offered some A-G courses. The list also includes small and rural schools that struggle to hire teachers who are qualified to teach A-G required classes in fields such as math, science or foreign language.
But 84% of schools that do not offer a full range of A-G courses are charter schools focused primarily on credit recovery for students at risk of not graduating from high school. Charter schools tend to be outliers in both directions; schools with the highest and lowest A-G rates — where fewer than 40% or greater than 80% of students meet A-G requirement — tend to be charters.
Changes in high school can help
Adelanto High is a part of Victor Valley Union High School District, which serves communities in the High Desert, including Victorville. Cheap, abundant land attracts residents priced out of the Southern California housing market, but there is little economic opportunity. Unemployment is high, and so is the poverty rate.
“The kids get stuck here, because there’s a cycle of poverty,” said Aleka Jackson-Jarrell, the coordinator of the Heritage program at Adelanto High.
Educators in Victor Valley Union High say that beyond ensuring that students have all of their options open to them upon graduation, it is not their role to choose a path for students. Military or trade school are options celebrated at the school, but educators tell students that a bachelor’s degree will be key for most students who aim to earn better wages and escape the cycle of poverty.
“Money talks,” said Yee, assistant superintendent of instructional services for Victor Valley Union High.
District leaders say ensuring that students meet their A-G requirements opens up two key options for students: being eligible to apply for a CSU or UC school, and also having the preparation to succeed at a community college.
Like much of inland California, the rate of students completing their A-G is low in Victor Valley Union High. In 2016-17, 13% of students in the district completed their A-G coursework, but it has been improving: that number rose to 29% last year.
Victor Valley Union High has been making districtwide changes that administrators say are key to putting more students on track for A-G completion.
Scheduling is important, Yee said. Creating a master schedule that prioritizes disabled students or English learners ensures these students aren’t missing A-G coursework because of a scheduling conflict. Some schools also build tutoring into daily schedules for struggling students.
The district studied students’ transcripts to figure out how to improve their chances of meeting A-G requirements. For instance, they found that students who took foreign language classes as freshmen or sophomores were more likely to fulfill this requirement, because they had time to retake classes to make up for any poor grades. Students are now required to begin their foreign language courses by sophomore year.
Victor Valley Union High also rolled out two programs aimed specifically at groups of students that were struggling the most: Black students and long-term English learners.
Homing in on groups who need the most help
The Heritage program, aimed at Black students like MarQuan Thornton, was piloted in 2022-23 at Adelanto High. Beginning sophomore year, every Black student in this High Desert school is automatically enrolled in this program that ensures students are prepared for graduation as well as college and a career.
Thornton said the program has helped him, even ensuring that he made up classes he struggled with his sophomore year. He now boasts a 3.7 GPA.
A-G completion rates for Black students at his high school improved. In 2021-22, 6% of Black students met their A-G. The following year, when Heritage began, that number jumped to 26%.
Because of its early success, the program is not only being rolled out at other campuses in the district, but is being used as a model for Legacy, a program aimed at long-term English learners.
Students in both Heritage and Legacy are sorted in four groups. Level 1 students are on track to graduate from high school with A-G requirements, while Level 4 students may be in danger of not graduating from high school at all. The coordinators hold monthly sessions with each group on topics ranging from how to fill out the FAFSA form or make up failed classes to basic life skills that students approaching adulthood need. Students also visit college campuses.
Parents are invited for workshops to school so that they can understand the importance of A-G classes and learn how to support — and perhaps badger — their children into staying on track.
Heritage coordinator Jackson-Jarrell said that having a background similar to her students’ helps her connect with them. She dropped out of high school when she was younger. She tells students that earning degrees — starting with an associate degree and ultimately obtaining a doctorate — helped her go from making $4.25 an hour to making six figures.
Her counterpart at Silverado High, Jose Velasco, teaches Spanish and runs the Legacy program. Like many of his students, Velasco is a child of immigrants whose first language was Spanish. He checks in to make sure students have access to bilingual aides so that they can understand the content in their college preparatory classes, such as geometry or history.
When Heritage first began, Jackson-Jarrell experienced pushback from non-Black teachers, parents and students questioning the need for a program focused solely on one group of students and pointing to other programs such as AVID, that focused on college and career readiness.
“We were hit with questions like, ‘Why is this program just for Black students? It’s not fair,’” she said.
Jackson-Jarrell would tell them that the data was showing that overwhelmingly, Black students need the most support meeting A-G requirements and that they have unique needs and challenges that Heritage addresses. When students visit college campuses, they try to imagine themselves fitting in. Not seeing Black students on campus can reinforce the idea that they don’t belong on a college campus.
“They’re looking for themselves,” said Jackson-Jarrell. “They feel like they don’t belong.”
So, Heritage will often ensure that when they visit campuses, they can meet directly with students from the Black student resource centers. This upcoming spring, Heritage students are invited on a tour through the American South, visiting historically Black colleges and universities. Legacy makes a point of visiting with Latino student groups on campus for similar purposes.
Jackson-Jarrell said that programs like Heritage and Legacy are important for the economic development of the community and hopes to see more programs like them in other districts in the High Desert.
Superintendent Carl Coles concurs. Increasing the rigor of students’ coursework and preparing them for higher education doesn’t just set students up for success, it improves the prospects of their families and the larger community. The district’s renewed focus on A-G requirements, he said, goes right to the core of why education is so important.
Coles said, “It really is so that every kid can live a life of purpose.”
This post has been updated to clarify a source’s statement
Los Angeles City College, one of the state’s 116 community colleges.
Larry Gordon/EdSource Today
Latino students are enrolling at low rates in bachelor’s degree programs at California’s community colleges. But many of those who do enroll are graduating quickly and finding work after leaving college.
But, in many of the programs, Latino students are not applying or enrolling at high rates. Across the programs, which range from equine and ranch management at Feather River College to dental hygiene at West Los Angeles College, just 30.1% of students are Latino. That’s much lower than the 46% of students at those colleges who are Latino.
To address that gap, the study calls for greater recruitment of Latino students to the programs and for the state to invest more money in the programs.
However, for the students who do enroll, 64% of them finish their degree within two years after starting their upper-division coursework. That’s comparable to non-Latino students, 68% of whom graduate within two years after starting those classes.
Following graduation, the vast majority of Latino students in the bachelor’s degree majors — 94% of them — reported being employed. On average, they earned $22,600 more annually than they did prior to starting the program.
Those outcomes are encouraging, but the colleges could benefit from a “public awareness campaign” to make sure Latino students know about the bachelor’s degree programs available to them, said Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, one of the report’s authors.
“We have this tool now, so let’s make sure people are aware. We’re seeing very promising results once they’re there. But we want to make sure that they get there,” added Rios-Aguilar, who is a professor of education and the associate dean of equity, diversity and inclusion at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
The bachelor’s degrees are more affordable for students than attending a University of California or California State University campus. Students can finish their degree for just $10,560 in tuition and fees, less than half of what it costs at UC or Cal State. Lower-division classes at the community college are $46 per unit, while the upper-division courses in the bachelor’s degree programs cost the same $46 enrollment fee plus a supplemental $84 fee.
Community college students with financial need can often qualify for state aid to fully cover those costs. That typically includes a California College Promise Grant to cover their lower-division fees and a Cal Grant to cover the $84-per-unit upper-division fees.
The 15 programs examined in the study are California’s original 15 community college bachelor’s degree programs. The state established those programs in 2015 as part of a pilot program.
The state then built on that pilot program with the passage of a 2021 law that allows the community college system to approve up to 30 new bachelor’s degree programs annually. Since the fall of 2022, at least 18 additional programs have been approved, according to the state chancellor’s office.
Not every college included in the study struggled to enroll Latino students in the programs. At two colleges — Antelope Valley and Bakersfield — the share of Latino students in those programs exceeded the overall share of Latino students at the college.
At Bakersfield, which offers a bachelor’s degree in industrial automation, getting those students enrolled starts in high school. Students in the Kern High School District have the option of earning an associate degree in industrial automation while they work toward their high school graduation.
“This innovative collaboration enables these students to seamlessly transfer into our baccalaureate program. Innovations that bring opportunity to students help explain Bakersfield College’s success in successfully recruiting Latinx students to our program,” Jessica Wojtysiak, the college’s associate vice president of instruction, said in an email.
In addition to that program, Bakersfield also now offers a bachelor’s degree in research laboratory technology.
At another college, MiraCosta, the share of Latino students in the college’s bachelor’s degree program in biomanufacturing was only 0.8% less than the college’s overall share of Latino students.
“In our diverse and vibrant student body, we are proud to observe that the majority of those enrolling in our programs — specifically the bachelor’s degree in biomanufacturing — represent a majority of non-White/Asian backgrounds, showcasing our institution’s appeal across various ethnicities,” Dominique Ingato, MiraCosta’s biotechnology department chair, said in an email.
To ensure that other colleges have similar success, the study released Tuesday suggests that the state should invest more money in the community college bachelor’s degree programs.
That could include spending more on outreach, marketing and recruitment to attract more Latino students. It could also mean investing in “research infrastructure” at the colleges, Rios-Aguilar said. She pointed out that community colleges don’t have the same research capacity as traditional research institutions like UCLA and other four-year colleges.
“It’s important to highlight that community colleges are severely underfunded compared to other sectors of higher education and yet they’re doing these amazing things and these promising tools are emerging,” she added. “Colleges are working really hard to make this happen.”
California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing approved long-awaited revised Standards for the Teaching Profession on Thursday that emphasize culturally responsive teaching, social-emotional learning and family engagement.
The standards, which guide teachers’ professional development and evaluation statewide, broadly describe the knowledge, skills and abilities expected of effective experienced teachers. State law requires that they are updated regularly.
During the meeting Thursday, the overwhelming sentiment — from commissioners members, speakers from the public, and the letters received — supported the new standards; however, some asked the commission to push back the 2025-26 rollout of the new standards to allow university teacher preparation programs, school districts and commission staff more time to implement changes.
“The revised CSTP aims to rehumanize our system by focusing on the whole student, their identities and what’s meaningful in this world to them, not us,” said Leigh Dela Victoria, an instructional coach in the Fontana Unified School District in San Bernardino County.
“They havethe potential to transform all of our classrooms into culturally and linguistically responsive and sustaining communities,” she said. “As a coach, I can tell you firsthand the impact this type of teaching has on students when their identities, assets and agency are valued.”
She told commission members that the current standards, approved in 2009, are out of touch with what needs to be taught in classrooms.
The six overarching domains of teaching in the new document are similar to the previous standards, and are parallel to other state standards, according to the commission. The elements within the domains include definitions and examples. The six domains are also used in the Teaching Performance Expectations, which outline what beginning teachers should know.
Going Deeper
Domain 1: Engaging and supporting all students in learning – Teachers apply knowledge about each student to activate an approach to learning that strengthens and reinforces each student’s participation, engagement, connection and sense of belonging.
Domain 2: Creating and maintaining effective environments for student learning – Teachers create and uphold a safe, caring and intellectually stimulating learning environment that affirms student agency, voice, identity and development, and promotes equity and inclusivity.
Domain 3: Understanding and organizing subject matter for student learning – Teachers integrate content, processes, materials and resources into a coherent, culturally relevant and equitable curriculum that engages and challenges learners to develop the academic and social–emotional knowledge and skills required to become competent and resourceful learners.
Domain 4: Planning instruction and designing learning experiences for all students – Teachers set a purposeful direction for instruction and learning activities, intentionally planning and enacting challenging and relevant learning experiences that foster each student’s academic and social–emotional development.
Domain 5: Assessing students for learning – Teachers employ equitable assessment practices to help identify students’ interests and abilities, to reveal what students know and can do and to determine what they need to learn. Teachers use that information to advance and monitor student progress as well as to guide teachers’ and students’ actions to improve learning experiences and outcomes.
Domain 6: Developing as a professional educator – Teachers develop as effective and caring professional educators by engaging in relevant and high-quality professional learning experiences that increase their teaching capacity, leadership development and personal well-being. Doing so enables teachers to support each student to learn and thrive.
“The revised CSTP features several key shifts from the 2009 version, chief among them a more holistic approach to teaching and learning,” said Sarah Lillis, executive director for Teach Plus California, in a letter. “For example, the move from goal setting to designing learning experiences shifts the focus from results to students’ learning. Another notable shift is recognizing that all teachers, regardless of subject-specific credential areas, are teachers of literacy skills.”
Family engagement is a key element of new standards
The new standards also focus on family and community engagement, requiring teachers to find effective strategies for communicating and creating relationships with families.
“These standards provide an invaluable road map that will undoubtedly strengthen how teachers, schools and communities partner with families,” said Bryan Becker, of the Parent Organization Network.
Also new to the standards are two sections, one asking teachers to examine their personal attitudes and biases, and how these impact student learning, and the other asking them to reflect on their personal code of ethics.
After speakers expressed concern about the few references to English learners and students with disabilities in the document, Chair Marquita Grenot-Scheyer made a motion to approve the standards with amendments that would “shine a brighter spotlight” on those students.
She also asked that the amendment include direction to ensure teachers attend individualized education plan meetings. School staff and parents attend these meetings to review the education plan of students with special needs.
Revision put on hold for two years
According to the commission, the revision was a long time in coming. Originally adopted in the 1990s, the standards were most recently updated in 2009. An expert group of educators, administrators, researchers and state education staff came together in 2020 to update the standards. The group met online five times between June 2020 and May 2021, but work was paused a few months later “as Covid and other critical world events demanded pause and reflection.”
Over the past two years, the commission has been focused on other state initiatives that would impact the new standards, including the new PK-3 Early Childhood Specialist Instruction Credential and the implementation of revised literacy standards and literacy-related teaching performance expectations mandated by legislation. Members of the expert group returned in 2023 to review and finalize the document.
Board denies pleas for delay
The commission voted for the newly revised standards to go into effect in the 2025-26 school year, despite numerous requests by speakers to extend the rollout to give teacher preparation and induction programs and the commission staff more time to prepare for them.
Grenot-Scheyer also directed commission staff to develop an implementation plan that will support school districts and teacher preparation programs during the transition.
Audry Wiens, induction coordinator for Fontana Unified, was among those who asked the commission to delay the implementation of the standards for a year. She said programs would need to come to a common understanding of the shifts that need to take place, revise relevant documents, train mentors in induction programs and update accreditation websites.
Some wanted the standards implemented as soon as possible.
“I am not an induction program provider, but it really causes me pause to extend any sort of timelines, because we have got things to do here,” said Commissioner Megan Gross. “… I want us to capitalize on this sense of urgency that we have to do better for our kids.”
Anaheim Union High School District student ambassadors in front of City Hall.
Credit: Jason Moon/Anaheim Union High School District
My 16-year-old son, Eli, came into my bedroom the other night to share a story that was upsetting him. He had been on the phone with Everett, one of his closest friends. They were talking about marketing strategies for Eli’s streetwear business. At some point, Eli paused and asked Everett, “What do you plan to do for a career in the future?” Everett replied, “I have no idea.” And then followed with, “Maybe I’ll just continue to work with my uncle.” Eli knew that was a fallback option, and not one driven by a sense of purpose or passion.
For Eli, a kid fortunate enough to inherently have a true sense of purpose and passion, Everett’s comments saddened him. The fact is, the vast majority of young people go through school without a sense of purpose. Our school system does not foster it. The majority of schools and districts remain compliance-focused and attend narrowly to the flawed set of outcomes represented by our state’s accountability system, like test scores, attendance rates, suspensions, etc.
Fortunately, there are exceptions. In California, we have many examples of innovative teachers, schools, and even entire districts that are fostering student purpose exceptionally well. The problem is, these examples sit as islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity.
In Cajon Valley Union School District, their vision is “Happy kids, in healthy relationships, on a path to gainful employment.” The vision is unusual in two ways: First, it’s rare for a K-8 district to focus on employment, and second, it says nothing about academic achievement. Yet, it’s truly visionary because it makes a calculated assumption that, if kids find joy at school and in learning, if they feel a sense of belonging and trust from being in healthy relationships with peers and adults, and if they know themselves well enough to have a purpose and direction for their futures, then they will learn. The vision includes an understanding of psychology and treats students as humans, rather than as parts on an assembly line. Best of all, in Cajon Valley, from Superintendent David Miyashiro on down, they live their vision every day.
At the district’s Bostonia Global high school, students are in advisory with a known and trusted adult for a full eight hours per week, including time at the beginning and end of every day. There, they not only build strong and trusting relationships with their adviser and peers, but also have a forum for exploring their identities, working through social-emotional challenges, setting goals, pursuing their college and career interests, and making plans for the future. Their “classes” are more like workshops with extended periods of time to delve into projects based on their interests and/or in service to their school and community. They feel like learning is relevant and purposeful. For that reason, they show up.
Through their World of Work program, kids come to know their strengths, interests and values. Through their TEDxKids@ElCajon program, students have freedom to pursue and articulate their passion.
In Anaheim Union High School District, Superintendent Mike Matsuda and his team have developed the Career Preparedness Systems Framework that blends three driving forces: giving students voice and purpose; promoting a set of durable skills, called the “5Cs” — collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity and compassion; and teaching students technical skills needed to succeed in the world of work. Students see relevance in many ways. They participate in career pathways aligned to their interests. They pursue projects of personal value and in service to their community. In doing so, about 2,000 AUHSD students per year earn the state’s Seal of Civic Engagement.
In Porterville Unified School District, about 4 of 5 high school students opt to participate in one of 14 open-access “linked learning” pathways across multiple fields, including engineering, hospitality, law and justice, multimedia, environmental science, agriculture, business and finance, and health. Through these pathways, students pursue their interests by doing interdisciplinary projects, participating in internships, running student enterprises and connecting with industry mentors. One of the district’s partners,Climate Action Pathways for Schools, engages students in internships to support the district’s many grants to reduce greenhouse gases (HVAC systems, solar energy, electric buses and more).
It’s no surprise that all three districts are seeing tremendous results. While pursuing distinct approaches, all are organized to foster students’ curiosity, exploration and pathway interests. They honor students’ identities, cultures and languages. They nurture trusting relationships and a sense of belonging. And, they give students a voice in what they learn, a choice in how they learn and demonstrate their competency, and agency to take ownership over their learning journey.
In education, it’s unjust for some students to have access to learning opportunities like these, while others do not; our commitment to equity must be systemic. While some students, like my son Eli, will create their own path driven by their own sense of purpose, we should not assume that all young people have the inclination, capacity and support to do so. Until we shift to a system that is increasingly student-centered, equitable, and competency-based, too many students will lack purpose. In turn, that lack of purpose will continue to feed chronic absenteeism, flat test scores and other challenges that ail the education system.
Ultimately, as educators and society, we have become complicit — valuing what we measure, rather than measuring what we value. Let’s change that.
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Roman Stearns is the executive director of Scaling Student Success, a California partnership dedicated to educating the whole child.
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